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By Grace Grey lock A[iles 



Bog-Trotting for Orchids 
The Hoosac Valley 



Preface 



IX 



on Lake Champlain, was destined to be the birthplace 
of American patriotism— one might say, of the very spirit 
of the first open rebellion against the EngHsh Crown, 
resulting in the American Revolution. 

The Hoosac and Walloomsac passes of the Taconacs 
became the gateways leading to the campaign ground of 
border warfare of the contending nations of New England, 
New Netherland, and New France. No less than ten differ- 
ent forts have occupied the portals of the main war-paths 
of the interior Hoosac Valley; and forty more strongholds 
have flanked its borders within a radius of seventy-five 
miles of the meeting of the boundaries of Massachusetts, 
Vermont, and New York. 

The Hoosac Pass of the Taconacs has been compared to 
the Pass of Thermopvl^e. The standards of the Hoosacs 
and Mohawks were unfurled when the "Assemblage of the 
Wise" took place in March, 1676, and Gov. Edmund Andros 
planted the Witenagemot Oak in Old Schaghticoke on the 
lower Hoosac. It marks the only "Vale of Peace" on 
the continent where a tree of welfare has been planted 
for the Indians. In the Hoosac Pass the flags of the French, 
Dutch, EngUsh, and Americans, and the banners of the 
Catholic and Protestant churches have been unfurled. 
The American Stars and Stripes was hoisted on the breeze 
of Freedom, at the surrender of the British at Old Saratoga, 
on October 17, 1777- a little over four months after it had 
been adopted by Congress. 

The brilliancy and value of the Councils of Safety, and 
the heroic service rendered by the Berkshire, Bennington, 
Rensselaer, and Washington boys, is denied by no student 
of history. In all the wars of the Republic, the Hoosac- 
tonians' mihtia has been represented, in the victorious fight- 
ing ranks, by sturdy representatives of American courage 
and intelligence. 



X 



Preface 



The author's purpose here is not to furnish new pages for 
history, but rather to present the story of beginnings in 
Historic Hoosac and Saratoga in their true relations to the 
world's great history of war, peace, and progress. Yet 
because of inherited sympathies, she naturally is inclined 
to give full credit to the victorious deeds of the "Sons of 
Freedom" of this fair valley, who fought entirely forgetful 
of self in their devotion to American Independence, 

G. G. N. 

New York City, 
January, 1912. 



The Hoosac Valley 



Its Legends and Its History 



By 

Grace Greylock Niles 

Author of " Bog-Trottmg for Orchids " 



With no Illustrations 



G. P. Putnam's Sons 

New York and London 

Ube IRnicl^erbocl^er ipress 
1912 



F/11 

■H73/yl 



Copyright, igii 

BY 

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 



"Cbe TftnfcfterbocJscr lprcs«, Hew gorfi 



3 £11 

I CI.A32H03 



^0 



THE MEMORY OF 



SOQUON AND MAQUON 



TWF 1 \9.T GREAT SEERS OF THE 



ERRA TA 

p. 1 06, 1. 10 For William Banker read Amos B. Banker. 

p. 106, 1. 20. For located about the Drader-bach read located two miles 

south of the Drader-bach. 
p. 106, 1. 22-23. For moving eastward over the Schaghticoke Plains read 

moving over the highway, 
p. 342, 1. 26. } 
P ^45 1 31 f ^'^'' ^"^^ House read Matthew House. 



PREFACE 

THE early history of the Hoosac Valley is inextricably 
interwoven with that of the very foundation of our 
great Republic. Its inhabitants were among the first to rise 
in resentment of the tyranny of the mother country, to 
defend the outraged rights of American manhood ; and it was 
here that some of the most determined sieges of the Revo- 
lution took place. Bancroft considered the victory of 
Bennington one of the most brilliant and eventful strokes 
of the Revolutionary War. 

The battle-fields of the savage period, during the Mohawk 
and Mahican wars, between 1540 and 1669, were located 
chiefly in the narrow passes of the Taconac and Green 
mountains north of the Forbidden Hoosac Mountain, 
between the Hudson-Champlain and Connecticut valleys. 
The "dark and bloody war-path?" stretched from Hochelaga 
— the Algonquin's council-hill on the site of Montreal in the 
St. Lawrence Valley of New France — south to Cohoes Falls, 
the eastern portal of the Mohawk Valley; thence, through 
the Hoosac Pass to Manhattan, Pequot, and Wampanoag 
ba^^s on the coasts of New Netherland and New England. 

The Abenakis tradition refers to Uncus and Passaconaway 
and their Mahican and Pennacook councillors lighting the 
nation's council-fire at Chescodonta, the site of Albany 
Capitol, until about 1595. However, at the time Samuel 
Champlain and his French and Algonquin crew visited 
Ticonderoga in July, 1609, and Hendrik Hudson and his 
English and Dutch crew of the Half Moon anchored at 
Chescodonta six weeks later, King Aepjen had removed the 



VI 



Preface 



Abenakis Democracy's Capitol to Schodac, the site of 
Castleton, on the east bank of the Hudson. His Owl and 
Hero captains, Soquon and Maquon of the Bears and Wolves, 
commanded castles, Unuwat and Moenemines, below Cohoes 
Falls and guarded the war-trails leading to the Iroquois 
hunting-grounds and the neutral forests about Ticonderoga. 

The Hoosacs and Mahicansacs of the races of Great Soqui 
and Great Minsi resided in the Green, Taconac, Helderbergs, 
and Catskills. They held the most powerful military posi- 
tion of the warriors of New England and New Netherland, 
along both banks of the Hudson and Lake Champlain water- 
ways. As a result, they were recognized as the greatest 
strategists of the Abenakis Democracy during the first 
century of our colonial history, until dispersed by the 
superior cunning of the Christians and the trickery of 
the Mohawks of the Iroquois Confederacy. 

As early as 1628, Maquon and Soquon were forced from 
their Saratoga and Hoosac hunting-grounds by the Mo- 
hawks. They retreated over the Green Alountains and 
located at Coos Falls on the west bank of the Connecticut, 
where their warriors took the tribal name of Coosacs and 
Soquonsacs under Soquon. They were soon joined by their 
kindred Pennacook and Abnaquis, Bears of the White Moun- 
tains and Maine Woods, and for forty-one years continued 
to dispute the Mohawks' occupation of their hunting- 
grounds. At last, during the late autumn of 1669, the 
Hoosacs and Mahicansacs won the final victory over the 
Mohawks, and again settled in their native forests. They 
adopted the new national name Skatecooks or Schaghticokes, 
signifying Warriors of the Mingling Waters. 

The colonial and revolutionary history of the Hoosac 
Valley touches that of five important provinces: Massachu- 
setts Bay, Rhode Island, and Connecticut on the south; 
New Hampshire Grants on the east ; New York on the west, 




The Walloomsac Ford of the ancient Hoosac and Mohawk Trail, over which 
the Fort Massachusetts Captives crossed, August 22, 1746, to Van Ness Mansion 
on their March up the Owl Kill Trail to Quebec s Prison-Pens. 

Fort St. Croix Terrace looms up on the right in the distance. On this Ter- 
race had been built four or five different Forts and Forest Chapels betiveen 1540 
atui 1777, although little is definitely recorded about their construction or destruc- 
tion. 

Whence have sprung the things that are ? 
And whither roll the passing years? 
Where does Time conceal its two heads. 
In dense impenetrable gloom, 
Its surface marked with heroes' deeds alone? 

OssiAN, Duan of Ca-Lodin. 



vu 



Vlll 



Preface 



and the Green Mountain campaign ground, of Vermont, 
within whose borders occurred many controversies over the 
adopted Twenty-Mile Line between New York and New 
England after the English conquest of New Netherland. 

"It is not the number of killed and wounded in a battle," 
wrote Montesquieu, "that determines its historical impor- 
tance." And whether our American battles were fought 
by the savage or by the Christian, to quote the emphatic 
lines of Lord Byron : 

'T is the cause makes all, 

Degrades or hallows courage in its fall. 

The successors of the Pilgrim Fathers, including the 
zealous Cotton Mather, held the doctrine of Underhill and 
Church. They believed the Mahicans to be the heathen 
tribes of Israel and contended that they had no rights that 
the Christian was bound to respect. The fur-traders soon 
succeeded in robbing the Indians of their lands for a few 
kegs of beer and grape wine. Later the English elders and 
Dutch dominies took possession of the heathen's hunting- 
grounds, and the savages discovered too late that they pos- 
sessed only the Christian's Bibles and had developed an 
unconquerable thirst for their Spirit-waters. The educa- 
tional status of the Redmen might have rested upon a 
more satisfactory^ basis had they been approached either by 
a lower race of civilization or by higher exponents of Chris- 
tianity than the creeds represented by the grasping Dutch, 
French, and English Fathers. 

The territory that lies in the heart of the Taconac 
Highlands covers but a small area of that occupied by 
the thirteen original colonies, but the region between 
Fort Massachusetts of the Enghsh on the upper Hoosac, 
forts Crailo and Orange of the Dutch on the Hudson, 
and Fort St. Frederic of the French at Crown Point 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

INTRODUCTORY 

The Hoosac Pass of the Taconac Mountains . . i 

CHAPTER I 

The Hoosacs' Hunting-Grounds and Legend of St. 

Croix, i 540-1 669 ....... 14 

CHAPTER II 

The Schaghticokes'Witenagemot Tree, 1669-1676 . 43 

CHAPTER III 

Mahican Boundaries and Christian Border Forts, 

1615-1815 ........ 58 

CHAPTER IV 

Fort Schaghticoke and Knickerbacker's Colony, 1676- 

1759 83 

CHAPTER V 

Fort St. Croix and the Patroons of French and Dutch 

Hoosac, 1624-1759 ...... 109 

CHAPTER VI 
Fort Massachusetts and English Hoosac, i 745-1 746 . 127 

CHAPTER VII 

Ephraim Williams and the Battle of Lake George, 

1747-1755 H5 



xii Contents 

PAGE 

CHAPTER Vni 
Fort HoosAC Propriety AND WiLLiAMSTOWN, 1749-18 1 5 . 162 

CHAPTER IX 
East HoosAc Plantation AND Adams, 1 749-1 815 . . 184 

CHAPTER X 
Samuel Robinson and Historic Bennington, i 749-1 815. 204 

CHAPTER XI 

Old Hoosac Falls and Petersburgh Neighborhood, 

1759-1815 230 

CHAPTER XII 

Old Schaghticoke and Old Cambridge Districts, 1759- 

1815 251 

CHAPTER XIII 

The Green Mountain Boys' Militia of Bennington, 

1764-1815 ........ 271 

CHAPTER XIV 

First Open Rebellion against the Crown at Fort 

Breakenridge, 1766-1775 ..... 281 

CHAPTER XV 

The Heroes OF Fort Ticonderoga, May 10, 1775 , . 293 

CHAPTER XVI 

The Councils OF Safety, 1 775-1 778 . . . . 309 

CHAPTER XVII 
The Victory OF Bennington, August 16, 1777 . . 331 

CHAPTER XVIII 
Surrender of the British at Old vSaratoga, October 

^7^'^777 352 



Contents xiii 

PAGE 

CHAPTER XIX 

Ethan Allen and the Allen Family .... 368 

CHAPTER XX 

Free School of Williamstown and Williams College, 

1785-1912 381 

CHAPTER XXI 

Slavery and the Birthplace of American Missions, 

1 773-1906 409 

CHAPTER XXII 

Industrial Independence during Stage-Coach Days, 

1774-1874 432 

CHAPTER XXIII 

A Century of Progress during the Hoosac Tunnel 

Era, 1810-1910 ....... 450 

CHAPTER XXIV 

Literary Shrines of the Valley of Mingling Waters, 

1610-1910 ........ 482 

The Hoosac Valley of Mingling Waters" . . 509 



1 1 



NOTES 
I 

Indian Origins of the Hudson, Hoosac, Housatonac, 

AND Mohawk Valleys . . . . . • 511 

II 

Lieut. John Catlin's Letters about Fort Massachu- 
setts Supplies ....... 525 

III 

First Muster Roll of Fort Massachusetts . . .527 



xiv Contents 



IV 
An Account of the Company in His Majesty's Service 

UNDER THE COMMAND OF SeRGT. JoHN HaWKS, WhO 

Were Taken with Him at Fort Massachusetts, 
Aug. 20, 1746 ....... 528 

V 

Recruiting Muster Roll of GarrisonSoldiers of Fort 
Massachusetts, under the Command of Capt. 
Ephraim Williams, August 20, 1746, Many of 
Whom Served in the Second Fort in 1747 . . 530 

VI 
Muster Fioll of the Company in His Majesty's Service 

UNDER THE COMMAND OF LlEUT. ElISHA HaWLEY, 

Dated, December, 1747, till March, 1748, at Fort 
Massachusetts . . . . . . -531 

VII 
Muster Roll of the Company in His Majesty's Service 

UNDER THE COMMAND OF CaPT. EpHRAIM WiLLIAMS, 

Jun'r, at Fort Massachusetts. Dated March to 
December II, 1749 ...... 533 

VIII 

Muster Rolls of the Companies in His Majesty's 
Service of Forts Massachusetts, Shirley, and 
Pelham, under the Command of Capt. Ephraim 
Williams, Jun'r. Dated December ii, 1749-JuNE 

3.1750 534 

IX 
Muster Roll of the Company in His Majesty's Service 

UNDER THE COMMAND OF CaPT. EpHRAIM WiLLIAMS, 

Jun'r, at Fort Massachusetts. Dated June 4, 

1 750- January 13, 1 75 1 534 



Contents xv 

PAGE 

X 

Capt. Ephraim Williams, Jr.'s Letter .... 535 

XI 
Muster Roll of the Company in His Majesty's Service 

UNDER THE COMMAND OF CaPT. ElISHA ChAPIN OF 

Fort Massachusetts. Dated,June,i752-June,i753 536 

XII 

Last Muster Roll in His Majesty's Service under 
the Command of Capt. Ephraim Williams, Jun'r, of 
Fort Massachusetts. Dated, September, 1754- 
March, 1755 537 

XIII 

Muster Roll of the Company in His Majesty's Service 
under Capt. Isaac Wyman, in Command of Fort 
Massachusetts during Col. Ephraim Williams's 
March to Lake George. Dated, July, 1755 . 538 

XIV 

Muster Roll of the Company of Musket Men, Con- 
taining 59 English Hoosac Minute Men under 
Capt. Samuel Sloan, Who Marched with General 
Arnold'sRegiment against Quebec, 1 775-1 776 , 538 

XV 
The Green Mountain Settlers' Petition . . . 540 

XVI 
Rebuke of the King to Governor Moore . . , 542 

XVII 

Treaty of the Settlers of English Walloomsac Towns 
with the Stockbridge Indians for the Schaghti- 
cokes' Hoosac Hunting-Grounds . . . 543 



xvi Contents 

PAGE 

XVIII 
Arnold's Bill OF Expenses . ..... 544 

XIX 
Arnold's Commission ....... 545 

XX 

Muster Roll of East Bennington Company, Contain- 
ing 77 Names, under the Command of Capt. Samuel 
Robinson, Aug. 16, 1777 ..... 546 

XXI 

Muster Roll of AVest Bennington Company, Contain- 
ing 78 Names, under the Command of Capt. Elijah 
Dewey, Aug. 16, 1777 ...... 547 

XXII 
The Famous Rudd Letter ...... 548 

Index 551 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

The Witenagemot Oak. A Treaty Tree of Peace and 

Welfare ....... Frontispiece 

The Walloomsac Ford of the Ancient Hoosac and 

Mohawk Trail ....... vii 

The Hoosac Pass of the Taconac Mountains, near the 

Weeping Rocks ....... ■?, 



The Westward Course of Hoosac River through 
Blackington, Massachusetts 

HOBBAMOCKO'S ShRINE ..... 

The " Half Moon " 

Map of Country East of the Rocky Mountain Divide 
Figurative Map of New Netherland in 1614 



5 

9 

17 
21 

23 



PlETER StUYVESANT, THE LasT OF THE DUTCH GOVERNORS 

OF New Netherland ...... 33 

The Weeping Rocks of the Hoosac Pass of Pownal 

along the Hoosac and Mohawk War-Trail . . 35 

Charter of New York, Granted by King Charles II to 

His Brother James ...... 38 

Site of the Devil's Chimney, Known to the Hoosacs 

AS HOBBAMOCKO's AlTAR ..... 40 

The Witenagemot Oak. A Treaty Tree of Peace and 

Welfare . . . . . . . -51 

-xvii 



xviii Illustrations 

PAGB 

Mitchell's Map of the British and French Dominions 

IN North America, 1755 63 

A Plan of 23,040 Acres of Land Lying on the East Side 

of Ashuwilticook River ..... 68 

Original Copy of HoosAC Patent . . . 72-73 

Fort Schaghticoke Meadow, from the Col. Johannes 

Groesbeck Orchard ...... 85 

Capt. Johannes Knickerbacker Manor ... 87 

Capt. Johannes Knickerbacker, ist, of Fort Schaghti- 
coke, and his "GoedVrouw" .... 89 

The Squaw King, Etawa Caume ..... 94 

The Hero, Maquon-Pauw, Emperor Johannes . . 95 

The Flint-Lock King Brandt ..... 96 

The Hero, Emperor Hendrick ..... 97 

Major Derrick Van Vechten Mansion at the Base of 

Pudding-Hill in Old Schaghticoke ... 99 

A Hand-Shaved Clapboard from Col. Johannes Groes- 
beck Mansion . . . . . . . 103 

Boulder Marking THE Grave of Col. Johannes Knick- 
erbacker ........ 104 

Garret Cornelius Van Ness St. Croix Manor . . 113 

The St. Croix Burial-Field . . . . .116 

The Perry Elm, Marking the Site of Fort Massachu- 
setts . . . . . . . . .128 

Fort Massachusetts Blockhouse . . . . 129 



Illustrations xix 



PAGE 



CoHOHA Cornfield of Kreigger Rock Neighborhood 
IN HoosAC Pass above Junction of Little Hoosac 
WITH Big HoosAC ....... 135 

Fort Massachusetts Meadow, Site of Second Block- 
house, WITH St. Francis Indian Ledge in Distance 149 

Col. Ephraim Williams's Sword and Watch . .159 

Monument Marking the Rocky Hill near where Col. 

Ephraim Williams Fell . . . . .160 

The Green River Valley . . . . . .165 

The River Bend Tavern Built by Benjamin Simonds 

on North Bank OF Hoosac River . . . .172 

The Hopper Brook near its Confluence with Green 

River . . . . . . . . .175 

The Second Congregational Church of Christ . .177 

Smedley's Green River Mansion . • . . .178 

Col. Benjamin Simonds ...... 182 

North Adams in i 840 during the Stage-Coach Days . 1 85 

Raven Rock Road through the Notch Valley during 

Winter . . . . . . . ,189 

Old Quaker Meeting-House Built IN 1786 . . . 197 

North Adams in 1848, Showing the Third Baptist 

Church ........ 201 

The Walloomsac River above the Old Red Bridge . 207 

Plan of Bennington Township ..... 208 

Charter of Bennington, the First Township Granted 

IN the Green Mountain State .... 209 

Six Representative Sons of Freedom, Five of Whom 

Were Born AT Bennington ..... 212 



XX Illustrations 



PAGE 



The First Church OF Christ, Bennington Centre . 215 

The Walloomsac Inn, Built in 1766 by Landlord 

Elijah Dewey ....... 222 

The Harmon Inn, Built by Sergt. Daniel Harmon 

before the Revolution ..... 223 

The State Line Tavern, Built by the Tory Matthews 

about 1783 ........ 225 

Eldred Inn, on the Site of the Cornelius Letcher 

Tavern ........ 234 

The Old Red Mill of Little Hoosac Valley . . 236 

Family Bible of Patroon Cornelius Van Ness of St. 

Croix Manor ....... 239 

Tibbits's Castle of Nepimore Vale, Hoosac, N. Y. . 247 

The "Hostead" of Col. Johannes Knickerbacker, ist, 

Manor of Old ScHAGHTicoKE . .... 253 

The Family Bible of Col. Johannes Knickerbacker . 254 

The Owl Kill OF Cambridge Valley .... 257 

The Checkered House, Built by Major James Cowden 266 1 

The Fireplace in the Great Parlor of the Knicker- 
backer Mansion ....... 269 

Muster-Roll of the First Company of Green Moun- 
tain Boys ........ 275 

The Truman Squires House ..... 283 

The Northern Portal of Henry Bridge, Irish Corners 284 

Col. Ethan Allen, the Hero of Fort Ticonderoga . 297 " 

Letter of Col. Ethan Allen ..... 305 



Illustrations xxi 



PAGE 



The Catamount Tavern, First Known as the Green 

Mountain Inn of the Green Mountain Boys . 310 

Council Chamber of the Green Mountain Boys in 

Catamount Tavern . . . . . -311 

Catamount Monument, Marking Site of the Cata- 
mount Tavern on the Parade at Bennington 
Centre, Vermont ...... 328 

Major-General John Stark, the Hero of Bennington 333 

Van Schaick's Mill at vSt. Croix ..... 334 

Slab Marking Site of the British Breastworks on 

Each Side of the Old Cambridge Road . . 335 

The Bennington Battle-Field of the Walloomsac 

Valley, N. Y. . . . . . . . 339 

Bennington Battle Monument . . . . . 349 

Camp-Kettle of General Burgoyne .... 350 

The Joseph Allen House, Old Litchfield Hill, Con- 
necticut ........ 369 

Ira Allen of Bennington and Burlington . . 377 

The Free vSchool of Williamstown, Founded by Col. 

Ephraim Williams . . . . . . 385 

Gen. Samuel Sloan's Mansion, Built in 1801 . . 391 

Three Presidents of Williams College . . . 395 

Hopkins's Astronomical Observatory, Founded by 

Prof. Albert Hopkins, 1838 .... 401 

The Campus of Williams College, Looking Eastward 

from West College Hill ..... 407 

Haystack Monument, Mission Park, Williamstown, 

Massachusetts . . . . . . -411 



xxii Illustrations 



PAGE 



Uncle Abe-the-Bunter, White Oaks Glen . . . 415 

Making White Oak Baskets at the George Adams 

Cabin 417 

The Church OF Christ, A Home Mission Chapel . . 429 

The Weeping Rock Road along the Ancient Hoosac 

AND Mohawk War-Trail 4^3 

The Old Stone Post Road East of W^hite House Bridge 435 

PowNAL Village in the Hoosac Pass of the Taconac 

Mountains ...... 430 

TheSeed Works OF Cambridge, New York . . . 440 

Old Continental Road, Left of the Poplars, South of 

Bennington Centre 447 

The Western Portal of Hoosac Tunnel Mountain, 

North Adams, Mass 453 

The "Tunnel City "of North Adams, Mass. . . 459 

Greylock Factory Village, North Adams, Mass. . 460 

The Sucker Pond, Summit of Green Mountains in Stam- 
ford and Woodford ...... 463 

The Soldiers' HoxMe for Vermont Veterans, Ben- 
nington ........ 465 

The Mowing- and Reaping-Machine Shops, Hoosac 

Falls, New York 466 

The "Big-Eddy" of Hart's Falls below Schaghticoke 

Point Bridge 46^ 

The State Normal College and Taconac Hall, North 

Adams, Mass. . 4-3 

Memorial Library, McKinley Square, Adams, Mass. . 475 



Illustrations 



XXill 



PAGE 

All Saints' Chapel and Campus of Tibbits's Hoosac 

School FOR Boys, HoosAC, New York . . , 477 

The Balloon North Adams ..... 479 

The Iron Tower on the Bald Summit of Mount Grey- 



lock 



485 



The Bellow^s-Pipe Park Ragged Mountains, Reveal- 
ing the Notch Valley ....... 487 

Flora's Glen, Williamstown, Massachusetts, Known 

To-Day asThanatopsis Glen .... 489 

Cascade below Tibbits's School Lake, Hoosac, New 

York ......... 491 

Mount Anthony Park and the Walloomsac Gap, Ben- 
nington, Vermont ...... 493 

The Hopper Amphitheatre, Greylock Park Reserva- 
tion ......... 501 

Dr. John Bascom, Orator and Philosopher, Williams 

College ........ 505 

The Arch of Truth, Front Gateway Leading to the 

Knickerbacker Mansion ..... 507 



.^sm>. 








XXXV 




Map of the Taconac Region. 



XXV 



THE HOOSAC VALLEY 



INTRODUCTORY 

THE HOOSAC PASS OF THE TACONAC MOUNTAINS^ 

We should read history as little critically as ive consider the landscape. . . . It 
is the morning now turned evening and seen in the 7vest, — the same sun, but a new 
light and atmosphere. — Thoreau, Week on the Concord and Merrimac Rivers. 

Legends of Hoosac Pass of Taconacs — Cambrian Sea — Silurian Bay — Glacial 
Lake Bascom — River and Lake Systems — Origin of Mahican Name 
Taconac. 

THE Taconac Mountains^ consist of a broken chain of 
peaks, now but a fragment of their original grandeur. 
The ruined range stretches from Fishkill-on-the-Hudson 
northeastward two hundred miles along the New England 
borders and tapers out at Brandon, Vermont. The range 
varies in width from one to fourteen miles, culminating in 
the highest summits and broadest land-swells on the upper 
Hoosac, Walloomsac, and Batten Kill. The Taconac high- 
lands are separated from the Green Mountains by the Great 
Southwestern Vermont Valley, that extends southward 
from the Lake Champlain headwaters to the sources of 

' For origins of Indian names, see Note i at end of volume. 

^T. Nelson Dale: "Geology of the North End of the Taconac Range," 
American Journal of Science, xvii., March, 1904; " Geology of Hudson Valley, 
between Hoosac and Kinderhook," United States Geological Survey, Bulletin, 
No. 243, 1904; "Taconac Physiography," United States Geological Survey, 
Bulletin, No. 272, 1905. 



2 The Hoosac Valley 

the Hoosac and Housatonac valleys in Northern Berkshire, 
Massachusetts. 

The Green Mountains form a natural divide between the 
Hudson-Champlain and Connecticut basins. The streams 
flowing from the east slopes join the Connecticut River ; the 
Hoosac, Walloomsac, Batten Kill, Mettawee, and Castleton 
rivers drain the western slopes, having made their devious 
westward passage through more than forty miles of the soft 
marble and schist walls of the Taconacs to mingle with the 
Hudson and Champlain waters. 

The valley of the Hoosac and the mingling rivers form a 
Cohoha (basin-shaped area) nearly forty miles square. The 
Hoosac and Walloomsac reach down to the 800-foot level 
above tide-water. The northern boundary of the Hoosac 
basin is the Walloomsac-Batten Kill divide of the Hudson 
basin, along which are the Vermont towns of Arlington and 
Shaftsbury. On the south, it is bounded by the Hoosac- 
Housatonac divide of the Hudson-Connecticut basin, marked 
by the Massachusetts towns of Lanesboro, Cheshire, and 
Hancock. From the Green Mountain watershed of the 
Hudson-Connecticut basin, along the heights of Florida and 
North Adams in Berkshire County, Mass., and of Stamford, 
Woodford, and Glastonbury in Bennington County, Vt., the 
Hoosac Valley of Mingling Waters reaches northwestward 
to the Hudson's terraced heights of Rafinesque and Rice, 
in the New York towns of Brunswick, Lansingburgh, and 
Schaghticoke, Rensselaer County, and Mount Willard in 
Easton, Washington County. 

The Green and Taconac mountains are popularly believed 
to be the same range, but they differ widely in structure and 
have forests peculiar to their formative rocks. The Green 
Mountains are a strong wall of quartzite, granite, and iron; 
their summits are covered with spruce and fir, and their 
slopes and valleys with hemlock, pine, and mixed wood. 




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4 The Hoosac \'alley 

The Taconacs are of marble, soluble limestone, talcs, and 
schists. The schists are of intermediate hardness and con- 
stitute the highest wave-like summits and the tops of the 
outh*ing hills of the range, which are clothed with forests of 
beech, birch, maple, oak, and chestnut. 

The westward and southern bends of both the Hoosac and 
the Walloomsac are due partly to their waters striking the 
Lower Cambrian quartzite of the Green Mountains or the 
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and marbles along the borders of the two ranges — obstacles 
that the rivers can circumvent but cannot erode. 

The s>-mmetrical sand-hills of diluA'ial formation on the 
headwaters of the Hoosac, Walloomsac, and Little Hoosac 
mark the grave of the ancient Cambrian Sea, Siliuian Bay, 
and the subsequent glacial Lake Bascom. Along the ter- 
raced shores are found conglomerates of limestone-breccia, 
composed of pre-Cambrian beach sand and small quartzite 
pebbles. Bryant in his poem, Earth, describes that Age 
when temperate waters surged through the Hoosac and 
Great Southwestern Vermont and Champlain valleys to the 
Gulf of St. Lawrence. He heard that: 

Voice of many tones — sent up from streams 

That wander through the gloom, from woods unseen 

Swayed by the sweeping of the tides of air. 

From rocky chasms where darkness dwells all day. 

The later language of the Glacial Period was scratched up 
on the bald summit of Greylock by the semi-continental sea 
of ice that bore down in its tidal movement from the CT>*stal 
summits of the Laiu-entian Highlands, located on the site of 
Niagara Falls. In a long subsequent j>eriod local glaciers 
crowned the Dome of the Green Mountains, and also Grey- 
lock, Moiuit Anthony. Equinox, and ^^olus of the Taconacs. 
TumbHng bergs of ice, freighted with granite, quartzite, and 



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6 The Hoosac Valley 

marble boulders from the North, were hoisted along the 
terraced shores and natural dams of Lake Bascom in the 
upper Hoosac and Walloomsac, where the rocks rest to-day. 
The Hoosacs and Mahicansacs recognized the quartz rocks 
of light, which the eye of morning counts on the summits, 
as Manitou aseniah (Spirit-stones). 

The lower natural dam of the glacial Lake Bascom was 
located somewhere about "Weeping Rocks" and Kreigger 
Rocks in Pownal, and Mount Captivity^ in Petersburgh on 
the New York border, and Mount St. Anthony on the Ver- 
mont border. The upper dam lay between Mount St. 
Anthony in Bennington, and Baum's Height in White 
Creek, on the New York border. Subterranean rivers 
flowed for a time through the caves of St. Anthony and 
Mount vEolus and served as outlets of the lake until the 
final breaking away of the rocky arches spanning the Hoosac 
and Walloomsac passes of the Taconac Mountains. After 
the greater volume of water rippling about the conical 
summit of St. Anthony, drained from the highlands, the 
Hoosac and Walloomsac river and lake system took place. 
Ten thousand years ago, according to its terraced shores, 
observed by geologist Dale, about the base of Greylock on 
the upper Hoosac, and Equinox and ^olus on the upper 
Walloomsac and Batten Kill, Lake Bascom had a depth of 
six hundred feet. The Hoosac lake was connected by an 
overflowing stream from the upper Walloomsac at Pownal 
Centre that eroded the gorges about Kreigger Rocks, at 
North Pownal; and St. Anthony's subterranean river, now 
known as Wash Tub Brook. 

The sand-hills of glacial drift, observed on the head- 
waters of all the little rivers of the Hoosac Valley, 
mark the site of a successive chain of lakes. The mounds 

' Christened after " Captivity" Smead, one of Fort Massachusetts' cap- 
tives born in the shadow of the mountain, August 21, 1746. See Chapter VI. 



Hoosac Pass of the Taconac Mountains 7 

were used as burial-places by the prehistoric Indian race that 
roamed through that section. The myth has been preserved 
by Whittier in his poem The Grave by the Lake. 

The Greylock-Stratton and the ^olus-Equinox spurs of 
the main Taconac Range are fourteen miles in width, and 
their summits rise 3505 to 3795 feet above sea level. The 
eastern face of the range is very steep, while the western 
slopes are gradual in their descent. Mount St. Anthony 
rises 2345 feet above tide-water and stands like a lonely 
sentinel guarding the Hoosac and Walloomsac passes. It 
is the only connecting link between Mount Captivity, on 
the New York border, and Equinox and ^olus, in the 
northern Walloomsac Gap of Vermont. 

The Hoosacs Lake District is located on the Rensselaer 
Plateau west of the Taconac Range. The region contains 
twenty-five lakes, fed by bubbling sand springs, lying on 
the south between the Little Hoosac and Tomhannac divide 
of the Kinderhook Valley, marked by the towns of Berlin, 
Grafton, and Brunswick in Rensselaer County; and on the 
north, between the Owl Kill and Batten Kill divide, adja- 
cent to the towns of Jackson, Cambridge, and White Creek 
in Washington County, New York. 

The sparkling wonders of Rensselaer Plains consist of 
conglomerates of beach sand, intermixed with pebbles and 
small boulders of quartz, and shales and grits, which form 
a clayey soil. The olive shale ledges weather bright brick- 
red, and are mixed with purple and white quartz and bluish 
belts of rock that contain several species of marine fossils. 
The olive shales begin near Lake Ida, east of the city of 
Troy, pass northeast through Schaghticoke, and reappear 
among the Cambridge hills in the Owl Kill Valley. 

The limestone-breccia ledge near Oakwood Cemetery, 
east of Lansingburgh Station, contains a vein of quartz- 
crystal known to the Hoosacs and Mahicansacs as Manitou 



8 The Hoosac Valley 

ascniah (Spirit - stone) . The Dutch and French of Rens- 
selaerw3''ck called it "Stone Arabia," and the English, 
"Diamond Rock." The Hoosac A' //.vwzar (powwow priest) 
used the quartz-crystal to carve SN^mbols of the Wakon-hird 
(Spirit-dove) to appease the Aloodus upheavals of Hobba- 
nwcko (the god of thunder). 

The ancient legend of the Rensselaer Plateau reveals that 
many million years ago during the Lower Cambrian and 
Ordovician or Hudson time, the region was submerged by 
three successive shallow seas. The recession of those waters 
was followed by three crustal upheavals of the earth's sur- 
face; one of these, in the Hudson Age, resulted in the 
formation of the Green and Taconac mountain ranges. 
The Cambrian Sea then receded westward to the longitude 
of the Hudson and left the Rensselaer and Washington 
hills denuded. Later, after the Glacial Period, the lake 
and river systems of the Little Hoosac, Tomhannac, and 
Owl Kill took place. 

The Lower Cambrian quartzite of the Green IMountains 
is the oldest outcropping rock of the Hoosac Valley. It 
is formed of beach sand and pebbles, accompanied b>- 
conglomerate or "pudding-stone" cliffs. The St. Francis 
Ledge of Lower Cambrian quartzite, north of Fort Massa- 
chusetts Meadow and in the Bray ton ville pass of the rail- 
road, underlies the Greylock Range, and reappears again 
on Monument Mountain in Old Stockbridge, where the 
Green Mountain rock tapers out. 

The accompanying "pudding-stone" cliffs may be ob- 
served overhanging the highway at "Weeping Rocks" in the 
Hoosac Pass of Pownal ; on Stone Hill in Williamstown ; near 
Bennington Falls on the Walloomsac; about the "Devil's 
Chimney," near the "Fallen-hill," in Old Schaghticoke on 
the lower Hoosac; and throughout Tomhannac and Owl 
Kill valleys of Rensselaer Plateau. The conglomerate 

i 



Hoosac Pass of the Taconac Mountains 9 

ledges, according to geologists, are the products of sea-ero- 
sion, of the pre-Cambrian land surface on the site of Hoosac 
Valley, before the upheaval of the Green and Taconac 
mountain ranges. Overlying this pre-Cambrian seashore 




Hobbamocko's Shrine. An Upheaval of Lower Cambrian Quartzite of the Green 
Mountain Bedrock on Rattlesnake Ledge of the Domelet, Pownal, Vermont. 



about "Weeping Rocks" in Pownal, may be observed the 
subsequent Taconac schists and limestone of the Hudson 
Age. On Rattlesnake Ledge of the Domelet a mile and 
a half east of "Weeping Rocks" is found an upheaval of 
the Lower Cambrian quartzite rock of the Green Moun- 
tains, thrust up later through the overlying Taconac 
limestones. 

That quartzite upheaval resulted in forming Alount CEta 
(Mason Hill) and the Domelet, and caused vertical fissures 



10 The Hoosac Valley 

or caves which, according to geologist Dale,' allow the sur- 
face water of the region to descend to a depth of 1500 feet. 
The water becomes heated and charged with gases, and 
bubbles to the surface again in the thermal Sand Springs 
two miles south in Williamstown. The Mahicans recog- 
nized the Moodus ^ upheaval of distorted blocks of rock and 
cast sacrificial stones in a heap in such noisy places to appease 
the evil spirit of calamity. 

The later legend of the Hoosacs Taconac Lake region of 
Rensselaer Plains reveals that the widest part of the Silurian 
Bay extended for a time over the hills of Grafton, Brunswick, 
and Pittstown. The only remnants of the ancient seas, 
bays, and later glacial lakes are found in the lakelets on the 
plateau 800 to 1500 feet above tide-water, fed by bubbling 
springs, ranging from a quarter of a mile to a mile and a half 
in length. The largest of these are Long Pond, Lake Bab- 
cock, and Lake Taconac. 

The Taconac and Green Mountain bed-rocks were first 
studied by geologist Amos Eaton and his pupils, Ebenezer 
Emmons and Albert Hopkins of Williams College. Dr. 
Emmons studied the Lower Cambrian upheavals of quart- 
zite on "Stone Cobble" (Mount Emmons of Alberta's 
Range) east of Williamstown, and reported his scientific 
discovery of the Taghkanic System in 1838. His theory 
called forth the ridicule of eminent geologists, but in 1846 
he published positive proof of his discovery, observed in a 
fissure south of Berlin Pass on Mount Hopkins, west of 
Williamstown on the main Taconac Range. Dr. Ebenezer 
Emmons 2 is to-day acknowledged the founder of the Taconac 
System in geology. 

' T. Nelson Dale, Geological History of Mount Greylock, 1906, pp. lo-ii. 
Read before Berkshire Hist, and Sci. Soc. at Pittsfield, Feb. 6, 1900. 

^ C. Burr Todd, "Geology of Mount Tom or Mount Moodus," Olde ConneC' 
ticut, xi., p. 151. 

3 Appleton's Annual Cyclopedia, 1861. 



Hoosac Pass of the Taconac Mountains ii 

The designation Taconac, according to the Mahican and 
Mohawk dialects, comes from the term, Tohkone, Tachan, 
and Taghkan, followed by the affix, i.e., tzen, and ic or 
ac, signifying woodsy, rocky mountain-place. The term 
Tohkonac, according to historian Ruttenber, first designated 
a bubbling sand spring west of the Taconac Range near 
Copake Lake on Livingston's "Taghkanick Tract," pur- 
chased from the Mahicans in 1683. The Dutch, French, 
and the English later pronounced the name, Tomhennich and 
Tomhannock, designating the creek draining the Hoosacs 
Taconac Lake region of Rensselaer Plains. The terms, 
Ket-Tar and K' ta-kanat-shan, according to J. Hammond 
Trumbull of Hartford, signify "great woodsy mountains" 
strewn with boulders and full of caves and sand springs. 
The name Taconac has fifty different spellings in the Albany 
Archives. 

Nowhere in the Taconac Range are its typical fea- 
tures of erosion more striking than along the banks of 
the Hoosac and its numerous branches. The Hoosac 
falls about two hundred and seventy feet in its devious 
northwest passage of twenty-five miles from the base of 
the Hoosac Tunnel Mountain in North Adams, Mass., 
to its union with the Walloomsac near Hoosac Junction, 
New York. 

The largest falls on Hoosac River are those of "Falls 
Quequick or Quiquek"^ in the Village of Hoosac Falls, and 
Hart's Falls in Schaghticoke Village. The latter descends 
one hundred and sixty feet in a run of less than two miles, 
between Schaghticoke Point highway bridge and the 
"Devil's Chimney, " opposite the "Fallen-hill." The "Big- 
Eddy," a quarter of a mile below the bridge, turns abruptly 
south and enters a gorge which is from one to two hundred 

' Canis's Report of Hoosack Patent III: "Quick-Quick," query for analogy 
hunters. 



12 The Hoosac Valley 

feet deep and about one hundred feet wide in places. In the 
wild course of the ravine the Hoosac falls one hundred feet 
and glides through "Hell's-gate," a narrow pass not over 
twelve feet wide. Many CoJiohas (cradle-hollows, or pot- 
holes) appear in the harder schistose rocks of the gorge, used 
by the Hoosac squaws as mortars in which to pound corn 
with stone-pestles. The perpendicular cliffs on either bank 
of "Hell's-gate" are scaled by hemlocks, cedars, and rare 
walking-ferns, cliff-brakes, and spleen worts. 

Below "Hell's-gate" the river bends west and north and 
forms a perfect ox-bow, enclosing a strip of land on the north 
bank called " Buck's-neck " — a resort for deer, opposite the 
Mahicans' "Indian-square" camp-ground. The stream 
takes many a wild bend and tumble before it forms the 
musical falls above and below the sacrificial altar of Ilobba- 
mocko, known as the "Devil's Chimney," opposite the 
"Fallen-hill." It finally turns south westward through the 
"Vale of Peace" before it resumes its constantly widening 
northwest course. At last, in full view of the Hudson, 
opposite the village of Stillwater, the Hoosac strikes the 
rocky terraces that separate its waters from those of the 
lordly stream beyond, and is turned abruptly south. Before 
the Hoosac blends with the grand river of the mountains, 
however, it is greeted by the Dwaas Kill, an overflowing 
stream of the Hudson which, as the Dutch name implies, 
runs both ways. It is not uncommon to see this little 
stream running north at sunrise and south at sunset, its 
upward course depending upon the swollen currents of the 
Hoosac after freshets or cloudbursts in the highlands. 

Beyond the Dwaas Kill, the Hoosac glides between 
impressive perpendicular walls of glacial drift, thirty feet 
high, and finally flows through a rocky portal, sixty or more 
feet wide, and mingles with the deep, still waters of the 
Hudson. 



Hoosac Pass of the Taconac Mountains 13 

The cradle-song of thy hillside fountains 

Here in thy glory and strength repeat; 
Give us a strain of thy upland music, 

Show us the dance of thy silvery feet. 

Sing on! bring down, lowland river, 

The joy of the hills to the waiting sea; 
The wealth of the vales, the pomp of the mountains. 

The breath of the woodlands bear with thee! 



CHAPTER I 

THE HOOSACS' HUNTING-GROUNDS AND LEGEND OF ST. CROIX 

I 540- I 669 

The doomed Indian leaves behind no trace, 

To save his own or serve another race. 

With his frail breath his power has passed away; 

His deeds, his thoughts, are buried with his clay; 

His heraldry is btU a broken bow, 

His history btU a tale of wrong and woe. 

His very name must be a blank. 

Sprague. 

Legend of St. Croix— Advent of Allefonsce's French Traders, 1 540-1 542 — 
Champlain's French Jesuits, 1609 — Hudson's EngHsh Pilgrims and Dutch 
Boers, 1609-1615 — Mey's French Walloons, 1624 — Abenakis Democracy 
— King Aepjen — Owl Soquon of Hoosac Valley — Hero Maquon of Mahi- 
cansac Valley — ^Abenakis Cantons — Castles — Villages and Planting- 
Grounds— Mohawk and Hoosac War, 1 609-1 669 — Victory of Soquon 
and Maquon over Kryn's Mohawks — The Hoosacs' and Mahicansacs' 
Burial-Fields — Moodus Pow-wows to Great Manitou and Great Hob- 
bamocko. 

THE Hoosacs' golden legend of St. Croix — the Holy 
Cross, formed by the junction of the Walloomsac with 
the Hoosac — undoubtedly originated during the visits of 
Allefonsce's' French fur-traders from St. Ange to their 
hunting-grounds, between 1540 and 1542. This myth throws 
back the Delaware and Mahican traditions nearly three 
centuries, to the time of Modoc's voyage to America, in 
1 1 70. The story of Modoc has often been repeated in con- 
nection with the possible existence, at an early date, of 
Welsh colonies on our continent. 

^ Cuyler Reynolds, Albany Chronicles, pp. 6, 16, 17, 79. 

14 



The Hoosacs' Hunting-Grounds 15 

In 1524 came the Italian explorer, Verrazzano, and his 
French crew from Dieppe, on the dove-like ship, La Dau- 
phi7ie. Verrazzano visited the Manhattanese village on 
Governor Island and christened the Mahicansac — the 
Grande River. The following season, the Spanish naviga- 
tor, Gomez, on his voyage to Florida, passed the Manhattan 
Bay, although neither of these discoverers attempted to 
locate in the region, 

Jean Allefonsce's fur-traders from St. Ange, France, settled 
at Chescodonta in 1540, and began a stone chateau on 
Castle Island, opposite the site of Albany, but it was swept 
away by high water before completion. A Jesuit Father 
later accompanied the traders up the river to Niskayuna, 
the willow flats of Green Island, and christened it St. Ange — - 
place of the Holy Angel, still known as Nastagione. 

The same season the St. Ange traders visited the Ilk- 
hook's (Owl's or Orator's) Tioshoke cornfield, near the Ticon- 
deroga trail, at the junction of the Owl Kill with the Hoosac 
River. Partridge berries and strawberries grew along the 
edges of the fields, and grape-vines embowered the oak and 
pine groves. The Owl, Captain Soquon of the Hoosac 
Bears, and the Hero, Captain Maquon of the Mahicansac 
Wolves, feasted on bear, wolf, venison, corn-cake, squash, or 
pumpkin, known as vine-apple, and succotash. They 
quenched their thirst with water from the hillside fountains 
and knew nothing of grape-juice or crab-apple brandy or the 
lightning weapons of the sky until the arrival of the French, 
English, and Dutch Christians in 1609. 

The Kitsmac (pow-wow priest) of the Hoosacs pointed 
out the Great Manitou's-swastika (Spirit 's-cross) formed by 
the junction of the two large rivers from the mountains 
above Soquon's Tioshoke village. The Jesuit Father at 
once recognized the ancient Egyptians' cross of good luck 
used as a symbol by Indian nations to ward off the Chin-dee 



1 6 The Hoosac Valley 

(evil-eye of the fiend of calamity). He blessed the mingling 
waters and hoisted the Roman Catholic banner St. Croix 
(Holy Cross), on the high terrace overlooking the valley. 
The traders later built the palisaded castle St. Croix and 
founded a forest chapel in memory of the missionary, St. 
Antoine of Padua. The ceremony was long remembered 
by the Hoosacs and Mahicansacs after the St. Ange crew de- 
parted in 1542. The names St. Ange, St. Onetho, St. Croix, 
and St. Antoine, still cling to the Vale of the Holy Cross 
of central Hoosac and to Mount St. Anthony of Benning- 
ton, in whose shadow St. Antoine's chapel undoubtedly 
stood. 

The Maquaas — Bears of the Iroquois Confederacy — 
began to war with the Hoosacs and Mahicans, according 
to tradition, about 1542, and fought until about 1595 when 
they forced Uncus and Passaconaway to retire from Chesco- 
donta Castle of the Abenakis Democracy. Soon after the 
arrival of the French navigator, Champlain, at Ticonderoga 
on the headwaters of the lake bearing his name, in July 
1609, and of Hendrik Hudson and his Dutch crew of the 
ship. Half Moon, at Chescodonta, in September of the 
same season, King Aepjen, a nephew of Uncus, succeeded 
to the democratical office of Great Sachem and occupied 
Schodac Castle, the site of Castleton, on the east bank of 
the Hudson. 

The King welcomed Hudson as Onetho returned from St. 
Ange — the country of angels beyond the sea. He invited 
Hudson's mate, Robert Juet, to his Schodac Castle and 
served him the customary feast of honor to friends. The 
repast consisted of a pair of white doves — peace symbols of 
the Holy Ghost, and roasted wolf or dog — symbolic of the 
supernatural power of his Mahican Heroes in war. The 
King begged Juet to abide with him and expressed his 
friendliness and trust by ordering his war captains, Soquon 




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17 



i8 The Hoosac Valley 

and Maquon, to break the string of their bows and throw 
their arrows into the fire. 

Hudson returned the Mahicans' feast on board the ship, 
Half Moon, and served much aqua-vitce (grape-juice) and 
Holland tobacco, the customary feast of Christian nations. 
The King became merry and confided his sorrows and his 
joys, and he considered aqua-vitce the Great Manitou's 
"spirit waters of paradise," and Hudson's Delft pipe the 
Calumet (pipe of peace). Robert Juet recorded this ignoble 
feast in his Journal of the Half Moon as a "dry joke " played 
upon the savages in order to discover if there was any 
"treachery" in their natures. 

Meanwhile the boatmen of the Half Moon explored the 
Grande River as far north as Cohoes Falls of the Mohawk, 
in search of a route to India. They christened the crescent- 
shaped Haver Island, the site of Castle Moenemines of 
Maquon's Mahicansac Heroes, Halve-Maen, in honor of 
their ship. The names Half Moon and Crescent still cling 
to that region. Before Hudson set sail for England and 
Holland he presented the Mahicans and Hoosacs with axes, 
hoes, and stockings, and promised to return to them after 
a dozen moons. He accepted their tokens of skins and belts 
of wampum, interwoven with symbols of the Swastika and 
Wakon-bird. 

"In the year 1610 Sir Thomas Smith, Sir Dudley Digges, 
and Master John Westenholm, with others of their friends, 
furnished out the said Henry Hudson to try if, through any 
of the passages which Davis saw, any passage might be found 
to the other ocean called the South Sea." 

Hudson visited the Abenakis King at Schodac, and his 
English crew put handles in the Dutch axes and hoes that 
the councillors had worn lovingly as ornaments about their 
necks. They taught the warriors to fell the oak forests and 
mellow the cornfield, and after the savages beheld the su- 



The Hoosacs' Hunting-Grounds 19 

perior wisdom of the Christians, they made the woodlands 
ring with their musical laughter over their own stupidity. 

The same season Hudson sailed North, where he discov- 
ered the bay bearing his name, and there he desired to 
winter. A mutiny arose and he and his son and seven of 
his faithful crew were abandoned and perished in this inhos- 
pitable region. By the home speeding ship Abacuck Pricket, 
one of the crew confined in the ship's cabin with rheumatism 
at the time, recorded that: "Henrie Hudson, John Hudson, 
Arnold Lodlo, Sidrack Faner, Philip Staffe, Thomas Wood- 
house or Wydhouse, Adam Moore, Henrie King, and Michael 
Bute" were placed in a shallop supplied with guns, ammuni- 
tion, fuel, iron-pot, and some meal. Henry Hudson, a son 
of the navigator, later became a sea-captain and settled in 
the Mahicans' canton. A lineal descendant of about the 
tenth generation bearing the name, Henry Hudson, at 
present resides in the city of North Adams on the upper 
Hoosac. 

The Amsterdam merchants of Holland in 161 5, with an 
5ye to business, sent several Protestant Dutch Boers to take 
possession of Hudson's Mahicansac Valley. Capt. Hendrik 
^orstiaensen built Fort Nassoureen on Castle Island at 
I^hescodonta, which was swept away by a freshet in 1618. 
however, in March 1624, thirty Protestant families of French 
Walloons from the Rhone Valley, set sail on Mey's ship, Nieu 
Nederlandt, from Amsterdam, and eighteen families joined 
;he Boers. They located in the pine groves of Greenbush, 
lear the site of Fort Crailo, and in June built Fort Aurania 
)n the site of Albany. 

The Mohawk King, jealous of the Mahican King Aepjen's 
lUiance with the Christians, began to molest his Hoosacs 
md Mahicansacs and in 1628 drove them from their Sara- 
;oga fishing-weirs and Hoosac hunting-grounds. The Wal- 
oons and Boers kept a covetous eye upon the Mahicans' 



20 The Hoosac Valley 

deserted cornfields, and Dominie Michaelous of Esopus, now 
Kingston, recorded in 1630 that: The Hoosacs and Mahican- 
sacs have fled and "their lands are unoccupied, and they 
are very fertile and pleasant." The Walloons hunted about 
Soquon's Tioshoke cornfield and noted the ruins of Fort St. 
Croix, built b^'' the St. Ange traders. Later they christened 
St. Croix River, Walloon Creek, and the Schaghticokes sub- 
sequently deeded the valley to them as the Walloomsac Tract. 
As recorded in the Albany Archives, the name has fifty 
different spellings. The Italian historian Carlos Botta' 
refers to the victory of Bennington in 1777 as won on 
"the banks of the Walloon Creek," now known as the 
Walloomsac. 

The land upon both banks of the Hudson during the first 
century of our colonial history, therefore, was controlled 
by the Hoosacs and Mahicansacs, subject to the Schodac 
Council of the Abenakis Democracy until 1 664. 

The Lenni-Lenape grandfathers of the race of Great 
Unami, or Turtles, originally resided on the shores of Dela- 
ware and Manhattan bays. According to the Abenakis 
traditions, they claimed relation to a fabled tortoise — the 
Atlas of their mythology — represented as bearing an island, 
as they termed the earth, on his back. The Kitsmac 
seers attributed the moodus-jargon noises of thunder and 
earthquakes to the anger of the monster turtle, jarring the i 
earth on his shoulders. They recognized him as Hobba- 
mocko (the Devil) and he was worshipped as the god of 
thunder. 

Revolting bands of Turtles and Snakes ascended the 
rivers of the mountains at an unknown day, fighting their 
way to their kindred, the Bears and Wolves, about Chesco- 
donta on the Hudson, and Hochelaga on the St. Lawrence. 

' Carlos Botta, History of the War of Independence, Book viii., p. 34. 
George A. Otis, Trans., 1826. 



22 The Hoosac Valley 

One powerful canton would hold the hunting-grounds of the 
Catskills and Helderbergs, or the Taconacs, Adirondacks, 
Green, and White mountains, for a time, until dispersed by 
a stronger race. These national conquests resulted in the 
A^Iahicansac Heroes taking possession of Hudson Valley. 
The isolated mixed sub-tribes of necessity soon modified the 
original musical tongue of their Lenni-Lenape grandfathers. 

The three great totemic cantons of Delaware Turtles, 
Bears, and Wolves of Northeastern North America, spoken 
of as the Algonquin Race — men of the musical language of 
Great Unami — recognized each other as members of the 
Abenakis Democracy. They were enemies of the Huron 
Turtles, Bears, and Wolves of the Iroquois Confederacy of 
the Great Lake and Mohawk basins of the Northwest. 1 

The Lenni-Lenapes, known also as Minquas, bore the 
totem of Great Unami, a fabled tortoise having a wild call 
— AQUA-MACHUKES. The Hoosacs bore the crest of Great 
Soqui, a fabled bear having a peculiar call — so-quis, ' — under 
the nation's Uk-hooh — Owl Soquon; the Mahicansacs bore 
the crest of Great Minsi — a supernatural wolf whose utter- 
ance was MA-HI-CAN, under the nation's Hero Maquon. 

Great Soqui was acknowledged to be the leading military 
canton, and the Wi-gow-wauw (great sachem or king) was 
chosen from the noble family of this race. The office 
vacated by death of the king, or any other cause, descended 
successively to his nephew — a sister's child — chosen by the 
vote of the Delaware, Mahican, and Algonquin councillors, 
at Chescodonta' or Schodac^ We-ko-wohum (castle of the 
Abenakis Democracy).'' Chescodonta, according to tradi- 

'Se-quins on Map of 1614. 

^ Chescodonta = Ischoda, straw-meadow; on-akee, hill-place, signifying 
the Hill of Great Council- Fire of Abenakis Democracy. 

i Schodae = Esquatac, Great Fire-Place of Abenakis Nation. 
* Electa F. Jones, Stockbridge, Past and Present, p. 20, 1854. 



The Hoosacs' Hunting-Grounds 



23 



tion, occupied the site of Albany Capitol between 1540 and 
1595, under Uncus and Passaconaway. Schodac, the site of 
Castleton, on the east bank of the Hudson, was occupied by 




Figurative Map of New Netherland in 1614. 
This Map was prepared by Capt. Adriaen Block and covers that portion of 
New England explored by him. The ancient 7tames of the Hudson and Connecti- 
cut rivers, as well as the toiemic designations of the military cantons of the Aben- 
akis Democracy and Iroquois Confederacy are discernible. The Abenakis 
Castles Mcenemines and Uniiwat are not located. They should have been indi- 
cated on both banks of the river Mauritius, ten miles 7torth of Fort Nassoureen, 
now the site of Albany. 



Aepjen, evidently nephew and successor of Uncus, in 1609. 
He lighted the nation's council-fire on Aepjen's, or Bear's 
Island, containing ten acres of marsh grass. The most 
ancient names of Bear Island are reported to be Passapenock 
and Mahican, and the island was doubtless occupied for a 
time by Passaconaway's Pennacook Bears, and Uncus's 
Mahican Wolves. 



24 The Hoosac Valley 

The Pennacooks, Mahicans, Horicons, and Nawaas were 
dispersed, however, by the Mohawks before the arrival of 
Champlain and Hudson in 1609. The Horicons pushed 
north to Lake Andratoroct, now Lake George. The Penna- 
cooks and Nawaas located on the east bank of the Connecti- 
cut ; the former lighted their civil council-fire at Pawtucket, 
where Passaconaway, in 1660, at the age of one hundred 
and twenty years, made his farewell oration. His nephew 
and successor, Wanalancet, commanded the Pennacooks and 
lighted his council-fire at Penock, the site of Concord, N. H., 
in 1675. King Uncus and his Mahicans migrated south and 
located about Pequot Bay in Connecticut, where roamed 
flocks of turkeys. They adopted the crest of Great Una- 
lachti, a fabled turkey, having a wild call — pe-quat, from 
which arose their new tribal name Pequots. 

According to the Hollander's Map of 161 4, the mixed 
Turtles, Snakes, and Turkeys were settled upon the coast 
of Delaware and New England. East of the Pequots resided 
the Wampanoags about Cape Cod Bay under Sachem Massa- 
soit, v/ho welcomed the English Pilgrims of the Mayflower 
in March, 1621; north of them resided the Maistchusaegs 
about Massachusetts Bay. In the Lake District of the 
Maine Woods were the fierce Abnaquis; west of them dwelt 
their kindred Pennacooks, and the Nawaas on the east bank 
of the Connecticut in the White Mountains ; and on the west 
bank of the Connecticut in the Green and Taconac moun- 
tains resided Uk-hooh-quethoths (the Owl-Bears), known 
as Hoosacs and Soquonsacs of Great Soqui, led by Soquon. 
Between the Hudson and Delaware, south of the Mohawk 
divide, in the Helderberg and Catskill mountains, resided 
the Maquon-paus (the Hero- Wolves or Maquonsacs) known 
as Minquas and Mahicansacs of Great Unami and Great 
Minsi, led by Maquon or Minichqua. 

The Hoosacs and Mahicansacs, therefore, occupied the 



The Hoosacs' Hunting-Grounds 25 

Sannahagog military districts on both banks of the Hudson 
about Cohoes Falls. They controlled castles Unuwat and 
Moenemines, and guarded the portal leading west to the 
Mohawk Valley, and the trail north to their kindred Algon- 
quins of Ticonderoga, known as the Adirondacks, situated 
on the shores of the Petonboque, the lake separating the 
Abenakis and Iroquois nations. 

About 1609, King Aepjen pushed the Hoosacs and Mahi- 
cansacs up the Mohawk Valley and invited war. They 
boasted to their jealous enemies that they received the first 
kiss of the morning sun, and that the tribute which they 
paid was 7iot to the Iroquois of the setting sun. The name, 
Mohawk, held no terror for the wise heroes of the East, 
although it still had for Uncus and Passaconaway, upon 
whose heads a price was set. Soquon and Maquon of Great 
Soqui and Great Minsi never yielded in battle until the last 
drop of blood of their enemy was shed. Hawkey e, the 
white hunter-scout of Falls Quequick of the Hoosac, men- 
tioned in Cooper's Last of the Mohicans, says: "Look to a 
Delaware, or a Mohican, for a warrior!" 

The Canadas later called all the mixed races of Abenakis 
Turtles, Bears, and Wolves of New York and New England, 
Manhingans (Loups, or wild dogs), owing to the prevailing 
totem of the Great Minsi (Wolf) tattooed on the warriors' 
breasts, from which arose the present name Mohegan. 
These warriors, known as the Algonquin Race to the Jesuits, 
controlled the Hudson-Champlain and Connecticut water- 
ways from the environs of Quebec and Montreal on the St. 
Lawrence, south to Delaware, Manhattan, Pequot, and 
Wampanoag bays. 

The fugitive King Uncus resided on the Mohegoneck 
River about Pequot Bay and attended the national councils 
of the Abenakis Democracy at Schodac on the Hudson. 
Part of his warriors, however, revolted in 1636, and he and 



■26 The Hoosac Valley 

fifty of his tribesmen were forced to seek aid of the Chris- 
tians about Fort Good Hope. Two years later the EngHsh 
of Hartford conquered the warring Pequots, and Uncus 
formed a treaty of peace with the Yankee traders. The 
fugitive Pequots were forced to leave their native valley 
Mohegoneck and take another tribal name. They migrated 
east and lighted their civil council-fire on the Narrow High- 
gansetts, between the Mohegoneck and Varsch, or Fresh 
River, of Connecticut, and took the name Narragansetts. 

The Pilgrims obtained a deed of Uncus's Mohegoneck 
hunting-grounds for a few kegs of aqua-vitcB, and he retained 
the tribal name, Mahicans, for his surviving Snake and 
Turtle warriors. The Mohegoneck River was christened 
the Thames by the New Londoners who arrived in 1638. 
Uncus lived until after King Philip's Mahican Revolution 
and was noted for his love of wines and cider brandy. His 
brother-in-law, Chingachgook (Big Snake), migrated to 
Falls Quequick in Hoosac Valley and became the father of 
Uncus, a nephew and last successor of King Uncus of Great 
Unami. Big Snake and his royal son met the hunter-scout, 
Leather-Stocking, at Falls Quequick village, and they all 
figure in Cooper's Last of the Mohicajis. 

Centuries before Champlain and Hudson arrived, the 
Hoosacs and Mahicansacs claimed to have built fishing-weirs 
at Ochserantogue— the place of swift waters on Fish Creek, 
the outlet of Lake Saratoga. It became a national fishing 
and hunting-ground for the people of the Abenakis Demo- 
cracy, although the warriors of the Iroquois Confederacy 
from the Northwest were not allowed the freedom of the 
weirs. The Horicons and Algonquins of Adirondack and 
Ticonderoga hunting-grounds knew Fish Creek as Sa-ra-ta- 
ke^-the place where the muddy moccasin heel of the Mo- 
hawk and Huron Mingos showed on the rocks about their 
weirs. Fish Creek Valley became known as the place 



The Hoosacs' Hun ting-Grounds 2-] 

of herring and a war-trail between the Mohawks and 
Hoosacs. 

The Iroquois Confederacy comprised three great totemic 
cantons of Huron Turtles, Bears, and Wolves, residing in the 
Great Lake and Mohawk basins. The Bears and Wolves 
included six sub-cantons in their order: Mohawks, Tusca- 
roras, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas. The 
Tuscaroras, according to tradition, warred with the Mohawks 
and migrated to North Carolina about 1595, after which the 
Iroquois Confederacy comprised only Five Nations. During 
1 7 14, the Mohawk King forced the Tuscaroras to return and 
aid him against the invading Christians, after which the 
Iroquois Confederacy became known as the Six Nations. 

The Mahicans were always hereditary enemies of the 
Mohawks, and Caniaderaunte, the lake that is the gate of 
the country, now Lake Champlain, was from time immemo- 
rial the dividing line between the two military cantons of 
warring Bears of the Abenakis and Iroquois nations. After 
Champlain aided the Algonquins of the Adirondacks to 
scatter their Mohawk enemies in panic with his weapons of 
the sky, during July, 1609, the Ticonderoga and Horicon 
forests for two centuries until 1815 became "the dark and 
bloody ground" of warfare. 

Between 1609 and 161 6, there were forty thousand war- 
riors of the Abenakis Democracy residing on the coasts of 
New Netherland and New England. Daniel Gookin, the 
historian, was informed by a Wampanoag sachem that 
thousands died the latter year from a scourge that caused 
its victims to resemble "the color of a yellow garment." 
King Aepjen's Hoosacs and Mahicansacs of Schodac, Unu- 
wat, and Moenemines castles suffered also from disease and 
famine in 1638. It appears that hundreds died from 
smallpox spread among them by the Christian traders, 
and were buried in the Tawasentha (vale of the many 



2^ The Hoosac Valley 

dead) in the ravine of Norman's Kill near Castleton-on 
the-Hudson. 

Between the close of the Pequot War, in 1638, and the 
English conquest of the Dutch, in 1664, King Aepjen's 
warriors usually spent the winter in the Hoosac and Housa- 
tonac valleys. The royal Schodacs encamped on the Wi- 
gow-wauw Brook, known as Nana-Apen-ahican Creek 
flowing about Monument Mountain in Stockbridge. Mass ' 
on the Housatonac; and near the confluence of Wash-Tub 
Brook with the Hoosac River, west of Kreigger Rocks in 
Pownal, Vt. The latter is distinguished for its Cohohas 
(pot-holes or wash-basins). Maquon also occupied the^ 
pme grove m the Mayoonsac near the Natural Bridge on the 
upper Hoosac. The pine grove at River Bend and Sand 
Spring camps m Williamstown, and the Sand Hills on the 
Ashawaghsac at the base of the "Forbidden Hoosac Moun- 
tain m Massachusetts proved snug winter lodges Other 
camp-grounds have been located in the Walloomsac and 
Batten Kill passes of Manchester and Arlington, Vermont 
about the base of Equinox and Mount ^olus. 

The warriors resided in the evergreen forests of the Ta 
conac passes until the new moon of February. This was a 
harbinger of spring and the squaws at once began to make 
maple sugar and soon moved their deer-skin tents to the 
banks of the Hudson and the shores of Lake Saratoga for 
the fishing season. The Pinxster Festival consisted of a 
feast of fish, after the squaws had planted the corn, bean 
pumpkin, and squash fields. Their warriors then started 
forth on hunting expeditions or the war-path until Pan's 
Festival of the Pass, held during the harvest moon of Octo- 
ber This was a feast of venison and corn-cake, celebrated 
on Pass-Apenock Island, now Bear's Island, and later in 
Pan-Hoo-sac, near Unuwat's castle on the Hudson after 
which the warriors returned to their winter lodges 



The Hoosacs' Hunting-Grounds 29 

Each winter lodge and summer planting-ground bore 
separate names. The chiefs and petty-sagamores held 
local government over their lodges, except during times of 
war, when they were subject to Soquon's and Maquon's 
councils at Unuwat and Moenemines castles. 

Numerous planting-grounds have been located in the 
Hoosac Valley, including Soquon's Tioshoke cornfield of 
twelve acres at the junction of Owl Kill with the Hoosac; 
the Tohkonac cornfield and orchard on the hills southwest 
of Buttermilk Falls on the Tomhannac Creek ; the Pompanac 
pumpkin and bean fields of Mawwehu on the Pumpkin Hook, 
a branch of White Creek; the Falls Quequick fields of Keep- 
erdo, who was known to the Dutch as "Hoosac or Mahican 
Abraham"; the Onakee fields of Chingachgook (Big Snake) 
on Indian Hill in Hoosac; Maquon's Cohoha cornfield about 
the junction of Wash-Tub Brook with the Hoosac in Pownal ; 
Orcombreight's Wampansac camp on Indian Brook near the 
Council Elm on Green River, and Grey-Lock's camp about 
the Wampanoag's Sand Springs in Williamstown. River 
Bend camp-ground, in the pine groves north of Moody 
Bridge in Williamstown, was considered the most picturesque 
lodge on the Mahican and Mohawk war-path in New Eng- 
land, until the forests were cleared about 1765. Other 
planting-grounds have been located in ArHngton and Man- 
chester Vt., on the Walloomsac and Batten Kill headwaters. 

According to the English and Moravian missionaries 
under Jonathan Sergeant and the German Count Zinzen- 
dorf, there were forty Mahican villages located among the 
Green and Taconac forests on the headwaters of the Hoosac 
and Housatonac valleys between 1734 and the close of the 
French and Indian W^ar. Chief among those lodges may be 
mentioned King Aepjen's Schaghticoke village, in Sheffield, 
Mass., on upper Housatonac; Soquon's and Maquon's 
Old Schaghticoke village, N. Y., on lower Hoosac, and Maw- 



30 The Hoosac Valley 

wehu's New Schaghticoke village, in Kent, Ct., on the lower 
Housatonac. 

Implements of war, soil-cultivating tools, and symbols of 
worship, have been unearthed throughout the Hoosac and 
Housatonac valleys. The Skeetecook meadow, which was 
the site of Maquon's Still Water lodge of the Hoosac and 
Mohawk scouts, known as the River Indians, at the junction 
of the Hoosac with the Hudson, has yielded its mixed crop 
of Mahican quartz and Mohawk flint arrows, scalping 
knives, tomahawks, clay pipes, and hominy-pounders. In 
the Skatecook meadow, the site of Soquon's village of 
Mingling Waters, at the confluence of the Tomhannac with 
the Hoosac near the Witenagemot Oak, have been found sev- 
eral relics, including a ceremonial Calumet, or pipe of peace. 
It was long preserved by the late Col. William Knicker- 
backer, and is now in Prof. D. F. Thompson's collection of 
Indian reHcs in Lansingburg, N. Y. 

Every burial mound has yielded its customary "weapons 
of rest." In some rare instances, a Wakoti-bird stone, carved 
from quartz, representing a dove or bird of paradise, has been 
unearthed in the tombs of the Kitsmac (pow-wow priest) , in- 
dicating his holy office. In the Abenakis King's burial-field 
on Indian Hill, near Lake Onota or Onetho, at Pontoosac — 
place of winter deer of Housatonac Valley— a portion of the 
Hebrew Scriptures of the Great Spirit was unearthed in 1815. ^ 
Indian Cemetery and the Sand Hills, in North Adams; 
River Bend and Sand Spring Grove, in Williamstown, Mass. ; 
Indian Hill, in Hoosac, and the burial-fields of Old Schagh- 
ticoke, N. Y., have also revealed their "weapons of rest." 

The Mohawk and Hoosac War that began in 1609 raged 
again in August, 1626. Most of the Dutch Boers and French 
Walloons of Fort Orange and Greenbush took to their flat- 
bottomed boats and sailed down the Hudson to their New 

'Electa F. Jones, Stockbridge, Past and Present, p. 24. 1854. 



The Hoosacs' Hunting-Grounds 31 

Amsterdam kindred. Capt. Daniel Van Krieckebeek, how- 
ever, remained in command of Fort Orange ; he and six of his 
soldiers aided Soquon and Maquon of Unuwat and Moene- 
mines castles, against the ambuscades of the Mohawks, a 
mile north of Fort Orange near Buttermilk Falls. Captam 
Van Krieckebeek and three of his men were slain, Tymen 
Bouwensen was roasted and devoured by the Mohawks, 
and the others were burned and buried. According to the 
ancient custom of the Indians, they reserved "a leg and an 
arm" to take home to their families as proof that they had 
conquered their enemies. 

Nicholaes Wassenaer, the historian of New Amsteidam, 
recorded that the savage warfare caused a depression in the 
fur-trade at Fort Orange. Battles continued to rage on 
both banks of the Hudson, reaching eastward about Green- 
bush and throughout Kinderhook Valley. During 1628, 
Soquon and Maquon led their warriors up the Mohawk 
Valley and set a torch to the Iroquois castles on the Great 
Flats near the site of Schenectady. The Mohawks slew 
great numbers and drove the Hoosacs and Mahicansacs 
from the Ochserantogue fishing-weirs and Schaahtecogue 
hunting-grounds. They forced them up the Dianondehowa 
trail, known as the Batten Kill Pass, over the Green Moun- 
tains to Coos Falls on the west bank of the Connecticut. 

Here the Mahican squaws cleared the Coos Meadows and 
cultivated corn and bean fields, while the warriors took the 
tribal name Coosacs or Soquonsacs under Soquon, and began 
to polish implements of war. The Moodus war-spirit was 
inborn in them and they sought revenge. Soon they won the 
ear of the fugitive Passaconaway and with the aid of their 
Pennacook and Abnaquis kindred of the East, they con- 
tinued to occupy their native fishing and hunting-grounds 
of the Taconacs and for forty-one years harassed the 
Mohawk Mingos. 



32 The Hoosac Valley 

In the half century after 1615, when Fort Nassoureen was 
built on Castle Island, the Dutch, French, and EngHsh 
colonists had crowded in from all sides. Continued war- 
fare had greatly thinned the Delaware and Mahican ranks, 
and their courage was so depleted by rum, their crops so 
scant, and their fishing and hunting-grounds so ruined, that 
King Aepjen of Schodac, in 1664, was forced through famine 
to move the Abenakis Democracy's council-fire eastward to 
the junction of Green River with the Housatonac, in Shef- 
field, Mass. He took the national name Skatecook and in 
1734 his warriors were there discovered by the English 
missionaries, Jonathan Sergeant and Samuel Hopkins. 
Aepjen's military council-fires at castles Moenemines and 
Unuwat, below Cohoes Falls, and at Catskill Castle also 
ceased to burn in 1662. That year Gov. Peter Stuyvesant, 
known as Swannekins, persuaded Kryn's Mohawks to make 
peace with the warring Soquonsacs. But instead of gaining 
a reconciliation the Mohawks' embassy was slain near 
Soquon's Coos Castle. 

During the eventful spring of 1664, Governor Stuyvesant 
summoned a general conference of all the sachems of the 
Hudson and Alohawk valleys at Fort Amsterdam. The 
Lenni-Lenape orator opened the council with a prayer to 
Hobbamocko, or Bachtamo (the evil fiend of calamity); 
and he begged the Great Manitou also to aid them in con- 
cluding a treaty of enduring peace with the Christians. 
Again Swannekins advised them to send peace commission- 
ers to Soquon's Coos and Penobscot castles. The Peace of 
Narrington was concluded between the Mohawk and Hoosac 
commissioners May 14, 1664. Governor Stuyvesant signed 
the Christians' treaty of peace a week later, and this was 
announced by a salute from the guns of Fort Amsterdam, 
and June 4th was proclaimed Thanksgiving Day throughout 
New Netherlands. 




Pieter Stiiyvesant, the Last of the Dutch Governors of New Netherland. 
He was known as Swannekins to the Delawares and Mahicans and, 
after making peace between the Hoosacs and Mohawks, celebrated the first 
Thanksgiving Day in New Netherland June 4th, before the conquest of the 
English in July, 1664. 



33 



34 The Hoosac \'alley 

Oaths and treaties, however, lay lightly on the Mahicans* 
conscience and warfare still raged. An avenging war-party 
of Abnaquis from the Maine Woods joined the Hoosacs and 
on July 1 ith besieged the Dutch and Krvn's Mohawk allies 
about Fort Crailo in Greenbush. Abraham Staats, his 
wife, and Negro slave were scalped, and his mansion left in 
flames, while the warriors descended to Claverack, plundering 
and murdering as they went. Governor Stuvvesant was 
unable to despatch his Fort Amsterdam militia to aid the 
tenants of Rensselaerwyck against the incursions of the 
savages, as the English war-fleet was already heard cannon- 
ading in New Amsterdam harbor. On July 27th, Col. 
Richard Nicolls sailed up the Hudson as far as Nyack Bay'; 
Fort Amsterdam surrendered to the Duke of York and 
Albany on September 8th. and became Fort James. 
Colonel Nicolls assumed the olfice of Governor of New 
York P^o^-ince; and on September 24th Fort Orange became 
Fort Albany. 

The EngHsh conquest of Dutch New Netheriand aroused 
the bitter jealousy of the French of New France. The 
Governor-General and his Jesuit chaplains at once began 
to strengthen their alliance with the Algonquins and Hurons 
Later they founded a line of palisaded mission villa-e>. 
among the Mahicans of Maine Woods, \Miite and Green 
mountains; and later assisted the Algonquins of St. Law- 
rence to harass their Mohawk enemies. During the autumn 
of 1666, the gouty .ALirquis De Tracy headed a band of 
French and Algonquins and succeeded in burning Kr}-n\ 
Mohawk Shonowe ^-illage and castle. He hoisted die lilied 
flag of France, and the Jesuit chaplain unfuried the Roman 
banner St. Croix, on a high pole above the smouldering ruins, 
and thus proclaimed their conquest of the Mohawk \^alley. 
The venerable Maquon. or Alinichqua. then held a coun- 
cil with Soquon at Coos Castle, and it was decided that the 













to 






to 



•o 

-as 
0^ 






35 



36 The Hoosac Valley 

Hoosacs and Mahicansacs should take advantage of Kryn's 
sad plight and drive the Mohawks from their Saratoga and 
Hoosac hunting-grounds forever. Soquon rallied all his 
warriors from the East and marched through the Hoosac 
Pass of the Taconacs to Kryn's Gandawague village in the 
Mohawk Valley. Kryn was soon humbled, and during the 
early spring of 1 667 he was forced to send an embassy to beg 
aid from the hated Canadas against Soquon 's deadly raids. 

The Governor-General of New France despatched the 
Jesuit Fathers, believed to have been Pierron, Fremin, 
Beschefer, and Nicholas, who aided the Mohawks to fortify 
the war-trails. They led the Mohawks up the Hoosac 
Valley to the junction of the Walloomsac, and it is believed 
that they built a palisaded fort and forest chapel on the site 
of Fort St. Croix, founded by the St. Ange traders in 1540. 

During the summer of 1668 Kryn and his Mohawks drove 
Soquon up the Hoosac, and he and his warriors took refuge 
beneath Weeping Rocks, in the narrow pass of Pownal. 
The Mahicans held a tradition that they would not be con- 
quered until the "rocks wept." That faith sustained them 
during a century of conflict with the Mohawks, until they 
sought the shelter beneath the Pudding-stone Cliffs and 
beheld the "tear-drops" which flowed from the mountain. 
The pursuing Mohawks were close at hand and slew nearly 
the whole band of panic-stricken warriors. 

Silent they fell at their chieftain's side, 
And Hoosac blushed with the purple tide. 

Here mourn the rocks a nation's woe, 
And tear-drops from the mountain flow!' 

After the massacre at Weeping Rocks, Soquon made his 
escape, torn and wounded, over the Hoosac Mountain trail, 

' Williams College Quarterly. 



The Hoosacs' Hunting-Grounds 37 

and sought the aid of his kindred Pennacooks under the stern 
Wampanoag chieftain, Grey- Lock, of the Agawam forests 
of Massachusetts. During Soquon's final siege against 
Kryn's Mohawks, headed possibly by their Jesuit chaplain, 
Boniface, in the late autumn of 1669, the Hoosacs and their 
allies burned Fort St. Croix and the mission chapel and slew 
nearly all the fleeing Mohawks and their children. Several 
warriors made their escape up Kayadrosseras trail, by way 
of Fish Creek, to the Mohawk Valley. The last mortal 
fight took place on a hill known as Kinaquarione, east of 
Hoffman Station, N. Y. 

All contemporary records of the Hoosacs' and Mahican- 
sacs' victory over Kryn's Mohawks were lost. At best the 
Mingos' traditions of their own defeat, as well as the reports 
of the French Jesuits who aided them, and the documentary 
records of the grasping Dutch and English officials of Fort 
Albany and Fort wSchenectady, reach back only to silence 
and fable. Historians usually accept the Mingos' dis- 
honest traditions and have never given the Hoosacs and 
Mahicansacs the credit of their military prowess or victories. 
Father Fremin affirmed, however, that he baptized fifty- 
three Mohawks between 1666 and 1669, although "nearly 
all of them had gone to heaven."^ 

Conclusive proof of the final conquest of Soquon and 
Maquon over Kryn's Mohawks is found in the Mahican 
title-deeds^ recorded in Albany, Berkshire, and Bennington 
County Clerks' Offices to-day, confirming patents of their 
hunting-grounds in Hudson Valley, Lakes Saratoga, George, 
and Champlain, and the Hoosac, Walloomsac, and Batten 
Kill basins. Although the Mohawks in 1628 claimed the 
right of conquest over the Hoosacs' and Mahicansacs' Sara- 
toga fishing-grounds, know^n as the Kayonderossera Tract, 

' Gen. William Johnson, MSS., pp. 170-173, 1767. 

^ Ruttenber, History of Indian Tribes of Hudson River, p. 59, 1872. 



38 



The Hoosac Valley 



the JMalilcan Bears and Wolves, by right of their final con- 
quest over the Mohawks in 1669, confirmed that tract as 
Saratoga Patent to the Dutch patroons in 1682 under Gov. 




r -^3 um\ ^ )r.]fr- Mr 



Mtf".: 




UfiTRir 



/ 




-tl-.'i 



! 



Charter of Nctc York, granted by King Charh;; II to his brother James, 
the Duke of York and Albany, Mareh 12, 1664. It is one of the oldest extant doeu- 
mcnts of New York State, and led to the do-wnfall of the Diiteh in 1664, and the 
land-title quarrels of 1-64— resulting /„ the Rirolution and the victory of the 
Americans oirr the British at Bennington and Old Saratoga in 7777. 

Thomas Dongan. As late as 1767 the Delaware and ]\Iahi- 
can descendants at Old Stockbridge continued to dispute the 
Mohawks' right to deed their Schaghticoke ancestors' forests 
on the upper Hudson, "to the prejudice of the Mohawks."^ 
The Hoosacs' victor3% however, was not purchased without 

'Gen. William Johnson, MSS., p. 33, 1767. 



The Hoosacs' Hunting-Grounds 39 

the loss of brave heroes, and the death of their chosen war- 
captain, Chekatabut of the Pennacooks, known to the Eng- 
lish as Josiah. Historian Drake ^ quaintly describes him in 
his Book of the I?idians as "a wise man, and a stout man of 
middle stature." 

The boasted terror of Kryn's Mohawks in 1669 vanished 
from the Hoosac and Saratoga hunting-grounds forever. 
Yet the Iroquois, famous for the dishonesty and treachery 
taught them by their French allies, patronizingly called the 
venerable Maquon, Soquon, Grey- Lock, and Wanalancet, 
"squaw sachems," "their children, and their nephews"; 
and the English and Dutch, "pale-faced dogs!" 

The Alohawks in 1726, aided by the white cunning of the 
Yankee Pilgrim and Dutch trader, in the hope of gaining 
territorial supremacy, entrapped the Delawares and Mahi- 
cans into signing a treaty of neutrality in war against the 
Christians. In 1742, at the Philadelphia Council, the 
JMohawk orator, Canassatiego, exclaimed at last: "We 
conquered you, we made women of you; you know you are 
women; we charge you to remove instantly; we don't give 
you liberty to think about it." The sachems of Wappan- 
achki after that were styled women, and nephews of the 
Iroquois, and they called the Mohawks their uncles. They 
still retained the prophet's commandments on the Prayer- 
stick of Great Unami, and until they migrated to Miami 
hunting-grounds in Ohio Valley, bore a hominy-pestle, 
instead of a tomahawk, in their hands. 

The Hoosacs' Tawasentha (burial-field and shrine of 
sacrifice) until 1 669 occupied the fifteen-acre meadow on the 
south bank of the Hoosac, opposite the Fallen-hill in Old 
Schaghticoke. A century ago a natural obelisk of limestone- 
breccia towered nearly one hundred feet from the river bed 
beneath the Fallen-hill. It was known to the Mahicans and 

' Samuel G. Drake, Particular History. 



40 



The Hoosac Valley 



Delawarcs as Hobbamocko's shrine, or the Devil's Chimney. 
About this monument the Mahicans hung offerings, inclu- 
ding Sicastika, Calumet, corn, and skins, to ai)pease the fiend 
of calamity there. After they moved to the Mississippi 



^*^'m 







Site of the Dei'il's Chimney, known to the Iloosacs as Hobbamocko's Altar, 
at the base of the Fallen-hill in Old Schaghticoke, yeic York. The Tawasentha 
{Burial-Place of the Many Dead) occupied the south bank of the Hoosac opposite 
the Fallen-hill. 

This bank, in which the dead were laid, 

Was sacred n'hen its soil xi'as ours; 
Hither the silent Indian maid 

Brought wreaths of beads and flowers. 
And the gray chief and gifted seer 
Worshipped the god of thunders here." 

Bryant, An Indian at the Burial-Place of his Fathers. 

Valley it remained their custom to hang offerings on an oak 
near the Cascade of St. Anthony of Padua in memory of 
their Witenagemot Oak in their "Vale of Peace." Thomas 
Moore in 1804 alluded to the Indian's sacrificial legend in his 
pcem, The Evil Spirit of the Woods: 



The Hoosacs' Hunting-Grounds 41 

Unto the dangerous pass 

O'er the deep and dark morass, 

Here the trembling Indian brings 

Belts of porcelain, pipes, and rings. 

Tributes, to be hung in air, 

To the Fiend presiding there ! 

The Mahicans believed in the renewal of the associations 
of this life be\'ond the grave. A small opening was usually 
left in the burial mound for the fiight of the Wakon-hird 
f Spirit-dovej , representing the departing soul. Symbols of 
the Holy Ghost, resembling doves or birds of paradise, were 
carved from quartz b}' the seers. They were known as 
Manitou-aseiiiuh C Spirit-stones), used by the Kitsmac-i- 
Moodus ''pMDw-wow propjhet) in his burial ceremonies. Moore 
also mentions the chant of the Indian Spirit Warble of the 
Wakon-bird in the Manitoulin-groves : 

Breathing aU its holy bloom. 
Swift I mount me on my plume, 
Of my Wakon-Bird, and fly 
Far beneath the burning sky. 

To the land be^'ond the sea. 
Whither happy spirits flee ; 
Where transformed to sacred doves, 
^lany a blessed Indian roves 
Through the air on wing as white 
As those wondrous stones of light. 

Only those that are willing to follow the trail of the Evil 
Spirit of the Woods will breathe the fragrance cf the Hoosac's 
Manitoulin-meadow, where, on the shady bank of their 
native river, bloom gigantic priests-in-the-pulpit and great 
Solomon's- seals, marking the mounds of the departed 
sachems of Wappanachki. 



42 The Hoosac Valley 

Now the wheat is green and high 
On clods that hid the warrior's breast, 
And scattered in the furrows He 
The weapons of his rest; 
And there, in the loose sand, is thrown 
Of his large arm the mouldering bone.* 

• Bryant, An Indian at the Burial-Placc of his Fathers. 



CHAPTER II 

THE SCHAGHTICOKES' WITENAGEMOT TREE 
I669-1676 

Vale of Peace! Imunt serene! 
O hill-encircled shades! 

The red-browed Indian's planted name 

Your blended waters bore. 
Though they who erst that baptism gave 
Beneath oblivion s blacketiing wave 

Have sunk to rise no more. 

Mrs. Sigourney, Scliaghticoke and Knickerbackers. 

Triumph of the Hoosacs and Maquonsacs, 1669 — Organization of the Schagh- 
ticokes, 1676 — King Philip's Revolution, 1 675-1 676— Mahican Owl 
Soquon and Hero Maquon — Sachems Grey-Lock and Mawwehu — 
Assemblage of the Wise — Planting of the Witenagemot Oak, 1676 — 
Council Tree of Peace To-day. 

A FTER the final triumph of the Hoosacs and IMahican- 
•^*^ sacs over the Mohawks in the late auttinin of 1669, 
Sir Francis Lovelace, then Governor of New York, visited 
Albany, in April, 1670, to make peace with them and the 
humbled Mohawk sachem, Kryn, The Ochserantogue 
Tract on both banks of the Hudson, extending from ]Mcene- 
mines Castle below Cohoes Falls northward indefinitely 
to Canada, was assigned to Maquon, known as the Hero's 
Mahicansac A^allc}'. The Schaahtecogue Tract, extending 
from Unuwat Castle and the jtinction of Skatecook Creek — 
Hoosac River with the Hudson — eastward to the * ' Forbidden 
Hoosac Mountain," was assigned to Soquon, known as the 
Owl's Hoosac Valley. 

The same spring the defeated Jesuit Fathers founded the 

43 



44 The Hoosac Valley 

beautiful village of La Prairie de la Magdelene on the Si 
Lawrence in New France. They soon removed all thci 
converts from both the Iroquois and Abenakis mission 
in the Mohawk and Hoosac cantons to La Prairie. Abou 
August, 1 67 1, however, several Hoosac and Mohawk war 
riors were "linked together in interests," as scouts employee 
by the English officials of Fort Albany to patrol the Ticon 
deroga war-trails to Canada. During March, 1672, Kin; 
Charles H. declared war against the Netherlands, and late ii 
June, 1673, a Dutch fleet sailed into New York Bay, and th' 
English province again became New Netherland. Th' 
Dutch captain, Anthony Colve, supplanted Governor Love- 
lace ; Fort James was rechristened Fort William Hendrick 
and New York was changed to New Orange; Fort Albany 
became Fort Nassau, and the town Willemstadt. 

General confusion now reigned among the Hoosac ancj 
Mohawk scouts of the English and Dutch officials, and fifteci 
"Praying Mohawks" in 1672 joined their Huron kindrco 
under the Jesuits at Notre Dame de Foy near Quebec. TIk 
Mohawk sachem, Kryn, soon became jealous of the dignit\ 
of Soquon and Maquon at the Albany Dutch Church anc 
Court House. He visited his kindred at La Prairie in 1673 
and was converted to the Roman Catholic faith, after whicl 
he returned to his Gandawague village in the Mohawt 
Valley and became reconciled with his deserted wife. Ih 
then induced about forty of his warriors, their squaws, ani 
children to locate in Canada at the village of St. Fran5cM> 
Xavier du Prez, on the Prairie. Later they moved to St 
Frangois Xavier du Sault, near the Rapids of St. Louis 
The revengeful Kryn and his mixed bands of "Pray in l 
Indians" from both the Iroquois and Abenakis nations 
adopted the new tribal name, Caughnawaga (warriors ot 
the laughing, leaping waters), and he later headed all the 
Jesuit forays against the Hoosac and Mohawk scouts. 



The Schaghticokes' Witenagemot Tree 45 

loyal to the Protestant Church of New York and New 
'England. 

The Mohawk and Hoosac War did not cease fully until 
ifter Kryn's removal to La Prairie in 1673. This was con- 
Irmed by the report of the Jesuit missionaries, and also by 
Lieutenant-Governor Golden in his History oj the Five Nations 
3f the Iroquois, who says that actual peace between the 
'Mohawks' and Hoosacs' kindred of the Maine Woods was 
not established until about that time. The Hoosacs and 
Maquonsacs, however, after their victory over the Mohawks 
in 1669, remained in full possession of the Saratoga and 
Hoosac hunting-grounds, and their Neversink and Hacken- 
sac kindred about that time asked permission of the Dutch 
officials of New Jersey to visit them. The Treaty of West- 
minster, however, closed the Dutch and English War in 
February, 1674, and the colonial forts and cities of New 
Netherland were again turned over to the English. During 
the following July, Sir Edmund Andros was appointed 
Governor of New York. 

After taking possession of New Netherland in 1664 and 
again in 1674, the English adopted equal laws regarding 
the sale of liquor, for the protection of the Indian and 
'Christian aHke. The sale or gift of "rum, strong waters, 
wine and brandy," without license, was forbidden under 
penalty of "forty shilHngs for each pint so sold or disposed 
lof." Rail-fences were provided for the protection of the 
^Indians' cornfields, since domestic animals were unknown 
to the savages and they frequently killed the cows and pigs; 
and it is recorded likewise that several greedy Dutch 
burghers, caught in their cornfields, were also slain. 

The Indian Commissioners reproved and punished the 
warriors for killing the stock and scalping the Christians, 
yet it was difficult to make them understand personal owner- 
ship of large animals similar to the deer and moose. The 



46 The Hoosac Valley 

peace, which was more dreamed of than reaHzed under Go-v 
Peter Stuyvesant's reign, was in a measure effected unde 
the administration of the English. Soquon and Maquoi 
and their chieftains and petty-sagamores, when finall; 
settled in the Hoosac and Saratoga hunting-grounds, becam^ 
loyally attached to the English Governor, whom they sub 
sequently called Brother Corlear, the Indian's Friend, ii 
memory of Capt. Arendt Van Curler, or Corlear, of For 
Schonowe, the Dutch village on the site of Schenectady, anc 
who was, in 1667, accidentally drowned in Lake Corlear 
now Lake Champlain. 

The years of 1675 and 1676 were troubled by the Mahicai 
uprising against the Christians for their unjust negotiation 
for the sachems' hunting-grounds on the New England anc 
New York coast. The revolt was headed by Metcom, suc- 
cessor of the sachem Massasoit, known to the Pilgrims a: 
King Philip of Macedonia. This involved the Wampanoags, 
Narragansetts, Pequots, and bands of their kindred Maquon' 
sacs, Hoosacs, and Pennacooks residing in the Hudson anc 
Connecticut valleys. King Aepjen at that time was locatecj 
on the Nana-Apen-ahican Creek, flowing about Wawa-on-a 
quass-ick (hill of great heaps of stone), known as Monumen 
Mountain in Old Stockbridge. The seer, Passaconaway 
in 1660, advised his Pennacooks to "take heed how thc\ 
quarrelled with their English neighbors," as it would prov(| 
the means of their own destruction. His succes.sor, Wana' 
lancet, therefore, in 1675 removed his warriors to Penockl 
the site of Concord, New Hampshire, and took no part ii 
the conflict. 

The stern Wampanoag chieftain, Grey-Lock, so namecj 
from his grey-lock of hair, commanded the Woranoaks 
residing on the site of Northfield and Springfield in th( 
Agawam hunting-grounds. During 1675, in company witl 
the young Pequot sachem, Mawwehu, and two hundred anc 



The Schaghticokes' Witenagemot Tree 47 

i 

.fifty warriors, he also fled over the Mahican trail to their 
kindred on the Hudson. They were observed by Major John 
jTalcot's Connecticut militia, near the site of Westfield, and 
Ipursued to the headwaters of the Housatonac and Hoosac 
valleys. Forty-five Indians were slain or captured, twenty- 
five of whom were considered King Philip's fiercest warriors. 

Grey-Lock and Mawwehu, however, torn and wounded, 
in company with two hundred warriors, made their escape 
to Dutch Claverack and located with their kindred at Potic 
!and Esopus in the Catskills and Helderbergs, until after 
the close of hostilities, when they joined Soquon's lodge at 
Old Schaghticoke on the lower Hoosac. A fleeing band of 
iWanalancet's Pennacooks were later pursued up the Connec- 
jticut Valley by the English militia. They sought shelter 
with their kindred Algonquins under the Jesuits and organ- 
ized the St. Francis Indian village on River St. Francis 
between Quebec and Montreal. Grey-Lock later joined the 
Jesuits and built Fort St. Regis on the Missisquoi Bay in 
the lower Champlain Valley of the Green Mountains, and 
Mawwehu built his lodge at Pompanac on the White Creek, 
in the Walloomsac Valley. Grey-Lock and Kryn now 
became the leaders of the "Praying Indians " and headed the 
St. Regis and St. Frangois warriors in all their forays against 
the English and Dutch settlements during Father Rale's 
Jesuit War, between 1676 and the death of Rale in 1724. 
Kryn was slain in 1690, while heading a band of savages 
:igainst the English on Salomon River, and Grey-Lock fell 
ifter burning Northfield in 1724. 

After the Pennacooks were comfortably located under the 
^Jesuits at their villages of Becancour and St. Francis, 
several young chieftains visited King Aepjen and Soquon, 
.irging them and their petty-sagamores located in the Housa- 
:onac and Hoosac valleys to join them in Canada in the name 
3f the Governor of New France. Gov. Edmund Andros 



48 The Hoosac Valley 

of New York as early as March, 1675, organized a Board of 
Indian Commissioners at Albany, and with a promptness 
equal to that of the Governor of Canada, and from similar 
motives, urged the St. Francis fugitives of Kmg Philip's 
War to return, and engage as scouts under King Aepjen 
and his Owl, Soquon, and Hero. Ivlaquon and several 
did so. 

Diplomacy was as necessary in the wilds of the Mahican 
and Mohawk hunting-grounds as in the towered cities of 
Europe, and Governor Andros, like his predecessor, was no 
m.ean strategist. During August, 1675, a second treaty was 
made with the Hoosac and Mohawk scouts, at which time 
they swore fealty to the Duke of York and Albany. The 
people of Albany, during the December following, were 
frightened by a report that King Philip and one thousand 
of his fiercest savages were only forty miles east of them. 
It seemed probable that Albany was their objective point, 
as the Hudson was frozen over and the Indians could easil}- 
cross over and burn the town. Captain Brockhalls, then 
commander of Fort Albany and its outposts, despatched 
three hundred Hoosac and Mohawk scouts eastward to 
meet Philip's war-party. In less than a month the scouts 
met five hundred of Philip's savage militia and returned to 
Fort Albany, bringing with them a number of scalps and 
prisoners. The expedition saved Albany, although Hadley, 
Springfield, Northfield, and Deerfield had already been 
plundered and burned. 

After this, King Philip remained in hiding, and the Chris- 
tians made an arranegment or treaty with the "Praying 
sachems" of King Aepjen's Mahicans of New England, to 
capture Philip and his fugitives. The Governor of New 
York later requested the Hoosac and Mohawk scouts of 
Schaghticoke to seek to capture Philip and his warriors in 
order to win the valuable rewards offered. It is needless 



The Schaghticokes' Witenagemot Tree 49 

to record that Soquon and Maquon were loyal to Philip's 
cause, while the sneaking treachery of the Mohawk scouts 
led them to hunt him down like a dog. Unbeknown to the 
Christians and the Mohawks, King Philip, Grey-Lock, 
Alawwehu, and the sires of Osceola, Black Hawk, and Uncus 
of Uncus, found refuge at vSoquon's Schaghticoke village, 
near the junction of the Tomhannac with the Hoosac, 
during the deep snows of December, 1675, and January, 
1676. 

During the autumn of 1675, King Philip's War appears 
to have raged about the headwaters of the Hoosac and 
Housatonac valleys, but owing to the uncommon depth of 
snow in the mountainous passes, actual fighting ceased dur- 
ing December and January, and in Februarj^ a sudden thaw 
left the ground bare. The place of refuge of King Philip 
and his leading chieftains then became known to the Mo- 
hawk Mingos, and the scouts soon drove them over the 
Hoosac Mountain trail to the Squakheags' lodges on the 
Connecticut River, where a few of Philip's faithful warriors 
made a final rally against the Christians, 

The Mahican treaty with the Christians, dated at Peta- 

: guanset, New England, on July 15, 1676, was sent by 
Governor Andros of New York to Soquon, and read as 

' follows: 



The said Sachem shall carefully seize all and every one 
of Philip's subjects, and deliver them up to the English 
alive or dead ; that they shall use all acts of hostility against 
Philip and his subjects, to kill them wherever they can be 
found; that if they seize Philip and deliver him alive 
to the English, they shall receive forty tunking cloth 
coats; and for his head, alone, twenty of said coats; and 
for every subject of said Philip, two coats if alive, and one, 
if dead. 



50 The Hoosac Valley 

In presence and signed by marks (totems) of: 

Daniel Hinchman, Sachem Jamageson, 

Thomas Prentice, " Tayson, 

Nicholas Page, " Agamang, 

Joseph Stanton, " Wampugh alias Colman, 

Henry Hawlins, Interpreters — probably 

Peter Bruce, Indians ^ 
John Neff . 

"When on August 12, 1676, King Philip was besieged in the 
Great Swamp near Pokanoket council-seat at Mount Hope 
in Bristol, Rhode Island, and shot through the heart by one 
of his faithless warriors, the Mahican Revolution was at 
an end. During its brief course three great cantons of the 
Abenakis Democracy, including Wampanoags, Narragan- 
setts, and Pennacook-Mahicans, had been almost totally 
slain or banished from their native hunting-grounds. The 
loss of the English was six hundred, or one in every eleven 
of the English settlers able to bear arms. 

After the Mohawk and Hoosac scouts were sent eastward 
in January, 1676, to repulse King Philip's army advancing 
against Albany, Governor Andros, with six sloops carrying 
a detail of soldiers, ascended the Hudson in February to 
relieve the garrison of Fort Albany, and to assist in building 
Fort Frederick at the head of Yonkers Street, now State 
Street. 

It was during Governor Andros' s visit to Albany that 
eventful spring after King Philip had been routed from 
Schaghticoke village, that the Witenagemot (Assemblage of 
the Wise) , consisting of the Board of Indian Commissioners 
headed by Governor Andros and his councillors, judges, and 
divines, accompanied by the militia of the King of England, 
assembled near the confluence of the Tomhannac with the 

•Hon. John Fitch, "The Schaghticoke Tribe of Indians," New York Hist. 
Mag., June, 1870. 




Tlw Witenagemot Oak. A Treaty Tree of Peace and Welfare. 

Planted by the Christians for the Hoosac and Mohawk Scouts, near the 
junction of the Tomha?inac Creek with the Hoosac River, in the Vale of Peace, Old 
Schaghticoke, New York. Here assembled the first Council of the Christians with 
Soqiion and Maquo7i after the Hoosacs' final victory over Kryn's Mohawks in 
^^70. ^fid ijig-fi (g mark the lord of all, 

The forest hero, trained to wars. 
Quivered and plumed, and lithe and tall. 

And seamed with glorious scars. 
Walk forth, amid his reign, to dare 
The wolf, and grapple with the bear. 

Bryant, An Indian at the Burial-Place of his Fathers. 
51 



52 The Hoosac Valley 

Hoosac and planted the Witenagemot Oak. The famous 
Council Tree of Peace was planted, not only with a view of 
confirming the link of friendship between Kryn's "Praying 
Mohawks" of the Caughnawaga village in Canada and 
Soquon's Iloosacs at Schaghticoke village, but to strengthen 
the alliance of Fort Albany militia with their River Indian 
scouts, whose fugitive kindred were scattered throughout 
New England, New York, and New France. It is the only 
"Vale of Peace" on the continent where the Witenagemot 
has ever assembled for the Indian's welfare. 

Of the actual planting of the Witenagemot Oak there is 
no contemporaneous record, as Col. Peter Schuyler was not 
appointed recording secretary of the Indian Conference until 
about 1700. Soquon, in an oration addressed to Governor 
Cornbury at Albany on July 18, 1702, rehearsed the incident, 
however, saying that: 

About twenty-six years ago (1676), Sir Edmund Andros, 
then Governor of this Province, planted a Tree of Welfare 
at Schaghticoke, and invited us to come and live there, 
which we very luckily complied with ; and we have increased 
that tree, and the very leaves thereof have grown hard 
and strong ; the tree is grown so thick of leaves and boughs 
that the sun can scarce shine through it, — yea, the fire 
itself cannot consume it. 

The fleet-footed Un-imh-kan-kun (Runner) was sent forth 
by King Aepjen in March, 1676, to invite the remnant bands 
of the fugitive Mahicans of King Philip's War to meet the 
Christians and the last of the Mohawks, at Soquon's Old 
Schaghticoke lodge. About one thousand warriors of the 
Abenakis and Iroquois nations, including the Hoosacs, 
Aiahicansacs, Pequots, Narragansetts, Wampanoags, Penna- 
cooks, Abnaquis, Lenni-Lenapes or Delawares, Mohawks, 



The Schaghticokes' Witenagemot Tree 53 

and Onondagas, assembled to hold the conference of peace 
with Governor Andros. 

The purpose of the Witenagemot was ostensibly to cele- 
brate the Indians' Festival of the new moon of February, 
which should be a harbinger of a spring of peace among the 
warring savages and the Christians. There should be made 
a compact of friendship, and the symbol should be the 
planting of a sapling oak. Whether Governor Andros 
poured only the customary deer-horn goblet of "pure 
river water" over the earth, as he blessed the "tree of 
welfare" and recognized the strict prohibition laws of 1664 
and 1674, we shall never know. It is safe, however, to infer 
that there was plenty of aqua-vitcB there for the occasion and 
that the tree was blessed by having a bottle of grape wine 
broken over its roots. 

The most dignified figures of the conclave included the 
kings. Uncus and Aepjen, the owl, Soquon, and hero, 
Maquon, and sachems, Wanalancet and Grey-Lock. King 
Aepjen held the Mjio-ti (bag of peace) of the Abenakis 
Nation, containing belts of wampum and the Calumet of 
peace, lighted by his Runner. Aepjen and the Mohawk 
King were councillors emeritus, as it were; and Maquon of 
the Mahicansacs and Kryn of the Mohawks and Caughna- 
wagas broke the string of their bows and buried the Pubui 
(hatchet) at the foot of the Tree of Peace. The eloquent 
Soquon of the Hoosacs pronounced the benediction and 
assured Governor Andros that the last of the Mahicans and 
Mohawks had wiped off the tears and blood on the Pubui 
and should dance beneath the branches of the Witenagemot 
Oak in peace. He called upon the Great Manitou to 
cleanse their beds and scatter all dark clouds, and offered 
Hobbamocko (the evil fiend of calamity) sacrifices, if he 
would guard against digging up the buried hatchet to cut 
down the Tree of Peace, planted by "Brother Corlear" 



54 The rioosac Valley 

and "Yonnondio" — the Governors of New York and New 
France. 

The Mahicans custom * at their national councils of peace 
or war was to seat the King, Runner, Owl, Hero, and other 
councillors in the innermost circle; the yoimg warriors were 
in the second circle, and the squaws and children in the third 
or outermost circle. The business of the women was that 
of recording secretary, and to note the compact of treaties. 
They imprinted the transactions on their minds and com- 
municated the traditions to their sons, destined to be chosen 
successors to the office of Great Sachem, Owl, Hero, and 
Runner of the Abenakis Democracy. 

The Assemblage of the Wise was surrounded by the bril- 
liant and uniformed militia of Governor Andros's staff, 
while the Jesuit Fathers, probably Bruyas and Boniface of 
the Mohawk missions, and the Dutch Dominies, Schaets and 
Van Rensselaer, of Albany, offered prayers and sang anthems 
during the closing ceremony of passing the Calumet (pipe of 
peace) around the circles. The Christians, including Gov- 
ernor Andros and his Council, were obliged to partake of a 
whiff of the incense of peace in order to seal the alliance of 
friendship. This ceremony was followed by an exchange 
of belts of wampum and skins from the Indians ; and Gov- 
ernor Andros presented to the River Indian scouts pipes, 
tobacco, knives, axes, and a few uniforms. 

The ceremonial calumet of the Mahican king was made of 
hard red stone and had a long stem. Those preserved in the 
Hudson-Champlain museums to-day, however, are of a 
platform or trumpet style, made from slate or gypsum, inlaid 
with nickel or lead symbols. The peace belts of wampum 
were embroidered with symbols of the Swastika (Cross of 
all Nations). 

' Dr. Benjamin Franklin, Remarks Concerning the Savages of North A merica, 
1834. 



The Schaghticokes' Witenagcmot Tree 55 

Governor Andros invited the Mahican warriors of the 
Maine Woods and White Mountains to settle in the Hoosac 
Valley and hold their civil councils with Soquon and Maquon 
beneath the Witenagemot Oak. He promised to build the 
"Praying Mohawks" a mission chapel near the junction of 
St. Anthony Kill with the Hudson at Skeetecook (Still- 
Water village) and Soquon's Hoosacs a chapel at Tioshoke, 
near the junction of the Owl Kill with the Hoosac. After 
the planting of the Tree of Peace, the Hoosacs, together with 
the last of the Mahicans of New England, took the new 
national name, Skatecooks or Schaghticokes — signifying 
warriors of the Mingling Waters, including the Pennacooks, 
Pequots, Narragansetts, Wampanoags, Abnaquis, Lenni- 
Lenapes, and Mohawk scouts. 

The name Skatecook was first given to King Aepjen's 
council-hill, near the confluence of Green River with the 
Housatonac River, Mass., in 1664. The Pequot sachem, 
Mawwehu of Old Schaghticoke, founded New Skatecook 
near the confluence of St. Agnes Creek with Housatonac 
River at the base of Schaghticoke Mountain, Ct., in 1726. 
The name, Skatecook (mingling waters) and Skeetecook 
(still waters) have many origins and over a hundred spellings. 
The French and Algonquins of New France pronounced the 
name Skatecook — Kaskekouke' ; King Aepjen and Mawwehu 
of New England pronounced it Skatecook, Pahhakoke, and 
Pishgachticok ; and Soquon and Maquon, under the Dutch 
of New York, called it Skatecook and Schaghticoke. 

Soquon in an oration addressed to Governor Cornbury 
July 18, 1 70 1, said that the warriors of Old Schaghticoke 
and Catskill villages consisted of two hundred fighting men. 
He added: "Our neighbors, the Mohawks, have not been so 
fortunate, for their tree was burnt. We have been so happy 
and fortunate that our number is increased to that degree 

' Francis Parkman, " Fort Massachusetts," Half a Century of Conflict. 



56 The Hoosac Valley 

that we cannot all be shaded by one tree, and, therefore, 
desire that another tree besides that at Schaghticoke, may- 
be planted for us." 

The Mohawk scouts' Council Tree was evidently planted 
by Governor Andros in 1676, in the "Duck Pond Lot" on 
the bank of the Tomhannac, southwest of the Knickerbacker 
Mansion, and was subsequently struck by lightning and 
overthrown. It measured twenty feet in circumference, and 
during 1876 the late William P. Button heaved the oak into a 
grave and covered it with earth near where it fell, Joseph 
Foster Knickerbacker — the "Poet of the Vale" — in his 
"Musings beneath the Hoosacs' Witenagemot Oak," pub- 
lished in his volume. The Arch of Truth and other Poems, in 
1876, records that; "The prostrate form of thy brother oak 
[referring to the Mohawks' tree] tells me it is even so ! That 
there is naught however venerable, and naught however 
sublime, but in a moment may be blasted by Heaven's Will 
and by Heaven's power." 

The Hoosacs' Witenagemot Oak still stands to-day, and 
beholds the "Vale of Peace" of another century than that of 
its sapling days of massacre and war. If its sturdy branches 
and rustling leaves could unfold the fitful shadows of the 
past, they might portray scenes of joy and sadness witnessed 
within the hill-encircled vale, and reveal vistas of the return- 
ing Hoosac braves headed by Queen Esther and her maidens 
of St. Regis in the grove-clad Tawasentha (burial-field of the 
Schaghticokes) , embosomed by the western hill-side. "And 
thence, Willom, — an old man, was borne to a new-made 
grave. And in after time, his son, and his son's sons, even 
for many generations, each advanced to hoary eld — like 
shocks of corn fully ripe — had within that sacred garner- 
field been gathered to the harvest." 

The sage Council Tree of the Hoosacs is twenty feet in 
circumference. It is now in its third, and probably last 



The Schaghticokes' Witenagemot Tree 57 

century of existence. The heart of the venerable oak is 
dead at its base, and through the winter months many a 
squirrel takes shelter in its deep recesses. In another half 
century this monarch of the Hoosacs' hunting-grounds will 
have passed away. A sapling oak should replace its parent 
and mark for generations to come the site of the Assemblage 
of the Wise in the "Vale of Peace." 



•I 



CHAPTER III 

MAHICAN BOUNDARIES AND CHRISTIAN BORDER FORTS 

1615-1815 

A noble race! but they are gone, 

With their old forests wide and deep. 

And we have built our homes upon 
Fields where their generations sleep. 

Bryant, The Disinterred Warrior. 

Protestant Dutch Boers and French Walloons, 161 5-1 624 — English Pilgrim; , 
1620-1628 — British Charters — New Netherland — New England — New 
France^Map of American Colonies — Dutch and French Hoosac Manors 
1637-1688 — English and Irish Hoosac Towns, 1 739-1 749 — French and! 
St. Francis Indian Incursions — King William's War, 1689 — Onondagal 
War Council, April, 1690 — English and Dutch Invasion of Canada, 1 
August, 1690 — Queen Anne's War, 1703-1713 — Rale's Jesuit War, 1689- 
1724 — King George's War, 1744- 1748 — Marin's Massacre at Schuyler 
Mills, Old Saratoga, November, 1745. 

THE furs that the Dutch Boers took back to Holland in 
1609 led the Amsterdam merchants to prepare a maj) 
— Carte Figurative"^ — in 1614, and invite colonization in the 
Mahican cantons. Capt. Hendrik Corstiaensen and 
Adriaen Block fitted up the ships, Tiger and Fortune, in 
1 61 5, and set sail with several soldiers, including Claessen, 
Eelkins, Lyberg, Orson, Schenck, and others. They founded 
Fort Nassoureen on Castle Island, opposite the present site 
of Albany. 

The fort was surrounded by a palisade fifty feet square 
and protected by a moat eighteen feet wide. Two cannon 
and eleven small guns were mounted on swivels, and the 

' Chapter I., p. 23. 

58 



Mahican Boundaries and Christian Forts 59 

cannon were adjusted to hurl small boulders when balls 
were scarce. The jealous Orson shot Captain Corstiaensen 
in 1616 and met death himself while in the act. Capt. Jacob 
Jacobs Eelkins succeeded to the command of the fort until 
it was swept away by high water in 161 8. 

Meanwhile in 1606, a band of Puritans known as Brownists 
or Separatists from the Church of England, met at Brewster's 
Manor-house— the "Post of Scrooby" of the Archbishop of 
York, on the borders of Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire, 
England. 

The Rev. John Robinson, together with Clyfton, Morton, 
Bradford, Brewster, and other Separatists, migrated to 
Leyden, Holland, and founded the Pilgrims' Church in 1607. 
During 1622, several French Protestants, known as Wal- 
loons, from the Rhone Valley, also migrated to Amsterdam, 
to escape persecution. The Dutch never admired the 
English Pilgrims, although they welcomed the industrious 
French Walloons. 

During February, 1620, the English Pilgrims desired to 
locate near Chescodonta on the Mahicansac River and found 
their Separate Church, but the Amsterdam merchants did 
not encourage them as colonists. Later over a hundred set 
sail on the ship Mayflower, and landed on the Wampanoags' 
shore of Cape Cod Bay. The French Walloons in 1622 
desired to join the English Colony in Virginia and found 
their Separate Church, but the Amsterdam Gentlemen 
urged several families to locate with the Dutch Boers of 
Fort Nassoureen Colony. 

In March, 1624, Capt. Cornelius Jacobsen Mey fitted up 
his ship, Nieu Nederlandt, and thirty Walloon families set 
sail for New Amsterdam Harbor. Two months later 
eighteen of those families settled below Cohoes Falls and in 
the pine groves of Greenbush, opposite Chescodonta. After 
making a treaty of peace with the Abenakis King and his 



6o The Hoosac Valley 

councillors, they built log dwellings and planted cornfields. 
In June, Capt. Adriaen Jorise and Daniel Van Krieckebeek 
built a fort on the site of Steamboat Square, in Albany. It 
was christened Aurania — the Latin for Orange, — in honor 
of Prince Maurice of Nassau-Orange, a small principality; 
of the Rhone Valley in southern France, then in the posses- 
sion of the House of Nassau. The Grande was christened 
Mauritius, * or Orange River. 

The English Pilgrims, during March, 1621, also built Fort 
Plymouth and a forest chapel overlooking Cape Cod Bay, 
and Capt, John Smith christened their province New Eng- 
land. In 1628 the Pilgrims began to explore the length 
and breadth of their territory and discovered the Dutch 
Boers and French Walloons in New Netherland. 

England claimed all rights of colonization and traffic in 
the American colonies through John Cabot's and his son, 
Sebastian Cabot's, discovery of America in 1497 and 1498. 
By the British Constitution the title of provincial land was 
vested in the King's power to grant at pleasure, either with 
or without power of government, to single individuals, cor- 
porations, or governors empowered with the government of 
certain described and bounded colonies, distinguished as 
proprietary, charter, and royal governments. 

A national enmity existed, between the English Crown 
and the Holland and French officials, over Henry Hudson's 
and Samuel Champlain's rights of discovery and colonization 
of New Netherland and New France, between 1607 and 1664, 
and the English King failed to confirm the Hollanders' 
purchased rights of Hudson. The Dutch inaugurated the 
Patroon's System of colonization, however, regardless of 
rights. In 1631 Kiliaen Van Rensselaer, a wealthy dia- 
mond merchant of Amsterdam, entered into partnership with 
Samuel Goodyn, Johannes De Laet, and Samuel Blommaert 

'Map 1614, Chapter I., p. 23. 



Mahicaii Boundaries and Christian Forts 6i 

to found Rensselaerwyck. Gillis Hossett and Dominie Sebas- 
tian Krol were engaged to negotiate with the Mahican and 
Delaware sachems for twenty-four miles square on each bank 
of the Hudson, making Chescodonta the centre of the manor. 
On April 8, 1631, Dominie Krol secured the Indian title 
of the land on the west bank of the Hudson extending from 
King Aepjen's Bear Island north to Smack's Island opposite 
Fort Aurania, from sachems Paep-Sikenekomtas, Mancont- 
tanshal, and Sickousson. On July 27th following, he secured 
the title of the Sannahagog Tract, extending from Smack's 
Island north to Cohoes Lane, or the Mahicansacs' war-trail 
passing through the centre of Maquon's Castle Aloenemines 
on Haver (Oat) Island below Cohoes Falls from sachems 
Cattomack, Nawanemit, Abantzene, Sagisquwa, and Kana- 
moack. Sachem Nawanemit also owned the north end of 
the Sannahagog Tract on the east bank of the Hudson, and 
six years later, in 1637, Jacob Albertzen Plank, first Sheriff 
of Rensselaerwyck, and Arendt Van Curler or Corlear, a 
cousin of Patroon Kiliaen Van Rensselaer, purchased the 
Hoosacs' Lake District, extending from King Aepjen's Bear 
Island north to Soquon's Castle Unuwat. This included 
the "Stone Arabia," or Diamond Rock Tract, eastward 
twenty-four miles, reaching up the Hoosac Pass of the Ta- 
conacs into Pownal, Vt. The sachems received for this 
vast forest region certain quantities of duffels, or coats, 
axes, knives, and wampum. 

The New Amsterdam Dutch Boers and French Walloons 

I kept a jealous eye upon the English Pilgrims migrating to 
the banks of the Varsch-Fresh River of Connecticut, in 1628. 
Capt. Jacobus Van Curler, an elder brother of Arendt Van 
Curler of Fort Orange, built Fort Good Hope near Hartford 

j in 1633, and challenged the Yankee Pilgrims' occupancy of 
the New England territory east to Cape Cod Bay, by right 
cf "club law." 



62 The Hoosac Valley 

The boundary quarrels of the Dutch, however, led to the 
English conquest of Dutch New Netherland in 1664. The 
New Englanders denied King Charles II.' the legal right to 
regrant New England, including New Netherland, to his 
brother James, the Duke of York and Albany, on March 12, 
1664. 

"The whiteman," says Thoreau, "came with a load of 
thought, with a slumbering intelligence, as a fire raked up, 
knowing well what he knew." The farmers of Rensselaer- 
wyck raised apples and rye more for the brewing of mead and 
beer than for pie or bread-making. A dozen boschloopers 
(forest-runners) were engaged by the fur- traders to meet the 
Indians on their way to Beverswyck market, bribe them with 
brandy, rob them of their furs, and lodge them in jail for 
drunkenness. In this manner the Mahicans and Mohawks 
degenerated between the advent of the Dutch and English 
Pilgrims and the downfall of New Netherland. 

After the English conquest of the Dutch in 1664, Capt, 
John Manning took command of Fort Albany, and the clerk, 
Dirck Van Schelluyne, began to enroll the patroons and their 
Dutch and French tenants as British subjects. Jeremiah 
Van Rensselaer of Rensselaer wyck in 1665 was the first to 
take the oath of allegiance to Charles II. 

Later the Mutual Board of the King's Commissioners 
agreed upon the Twenty-Mile Line east of, and parallel with, | 
the Hudson River as the boundar}^ between New York and 
Connecticut. After the Duke of York ascended the throne 1 
as King James II., Col. Richard Nicolls, the first governor j 
of New York Colony, wrote him that the adopted line was j 
a favorable adjustment to be followed for the entire boun- 
dary between New York and Massachusetts Bay, which at the 
time was distinctly understood to extend north to Canada, j 

'King Charles II., Charter of N. Y., 1664, cited in London Documents, xv'i., 
p. 253. Illustration, Chapter I., p. 38. 




r.,it o|- l)i .M.loli.iK Mm|, 



,„ \ »,.,.■,■,, ., ..1 n:.:, 
INKWYOHK ..s M:\V H.VMJ'.SIllHl-. 



Mitchell's Map of the British and French Dominions in North America, 175$. 
It Shows the Adopted Twenty-Mile Boundary between New York and 

New England Colonies. 

63 



64 The Hoosac Valley 

The Twenty-j\Iile Line was subsequently described on Dr. 
Jno. Mitchell's Map of the British and French Dominions in\ 
North America, published in London during 1755. The 
following certificate is found inscribed on the back of the 
original map, which is six feet square: 

This Map was undertaken with the approbation and 
request of the lords Commission for trade and plantations 
and is chiefly composed from draughts, charts, and actual 
surveys of different parts of his Majesty's Colonies and 
plantations in America; great part of which have been lately 
taken by their lordship's orders and transmitted to this 
office by the Governors of said Colonies and others. 

John Pownall, 

Secretary. 
Plantation Office, February 13, 1755. 

Among the first manors purchased of the Indians in Hoosac 
Valley was Rensselaerwyck, which reached east twenty-four 
miles from the Hudson in 1637. It was confirmed by the 
English in 1665, according to adopted boundary twenty 
miles east of the Hudson. The original Ochserantogue or 
Sarachtogie Tract of the Mahicansacs began north of 
Mathahennaheh or Manitou-aseniah (Spirit-rock) about 
Nack-te-Nack, the islands below Cohoes Falls ; and extended 
north indefinitely on both sides of the Hudson. Portions of 
this vast tract were subsequently deeded by the Alahican 
sachems to several individuals. The "Halve-AIaen" Tract 
north of Rensselaerwyck was deeded to the Albany brewer, 
Capt. Goosen Garretse Van Schaick, and Philipsen Pietersen 
Schuyler in 1662 in order to prevent "those of Connecticut" 
purchasing it, and this transfer was confirmed by the King 
in 1664. The south line ran east and west along the Boght 
(Manor) Avenue of Rensselaerwyck through the centre of 
Castle Moenemines on Haver Island ; and the parallel north 



I 



Mahican Boundaries and Christian Forts 65 

line began at the junction of St. Anthony Kill with the 
Hudson and extended west to the Mohawk Flats. Hilete 
(Alice), the wife of Pieter Danielse Van Olinde, a daughter 
of a Mohawk squaw and Cornelius Antonissen Van Slyck, 
mentioned by the French Labadist missionaries, Jasper 
Dankers and Pieter Sluyter, as an intelligent Indian in- 
terpretress, owned the Mohawk Flats above Cohoes Falls. 

The first settlers on Haver Island of the Half-Moon 
Patent included Oldert Onderkirk and Harmon Lievens. 
The island contains one hundred and twenty-five acres, 
and Fort Half-Moon was built about Lievens's house and 
commanded by his son-in-law, Captain Van Schaick, until 
his death in 1667. Captain Van Schaick also owned Cohoes 
Island, now Van Schaick Island, below the Third Sprout or 
fork of the Mohawk, which contains three hundred acres. 
The subsequent tenants of the region were Guert Hendrickse 
Van Schoonhoven, Roeloff Garretse Van Derwerken, Henry 
Lansing, Cornelius Onderkirk, Dirck Heamstreet, and 
Frederick Clute. The site of Moenemines Castle of Ma- 
quon's Mahicansacs on Haver Island, and a portion of the 
mainland on the site of Waterford was sold by Captain Van 
Schaick's widow, Annetie, to Jan Jacobse Van Noorstrand, 
June 26, 1677, for "sixty and six beavers" at the market 
price or in grain or labor. The quaint deed was recorded 
at the Albany County Clerk's Office by Robert Livingston, 
in the presence of Garret Banker and Harmon Rutkers. 
Fort Half-Moon was removed after King William's War, 
and in 1703 rebuilt, during Governor Cornbury's office, on 
Leland's and Taylor's farms near the junction of St. Anthony 
Kill, partly in Half-Moon and partly in Saratoga. 

Gov. Francis Lovelace, as early as 1670, granted Robert 
Sanders a portion of the south end of "Stone Arabia," or 
Diamond Rock Patent, extending from Unuwat's Castle of 
Soquon's Hoosacs, south to Piscawen's Kill in Troy. Nine 



i 



66 The Hoosac Valley 

years later Gov. Thomas Dongan granted Robert Sandersj 
the Passquassic Patent, including the pine woods of Green- 
bosch and Whale Island, now submerged, for an annual quit- 
rent of three bushels of winter wheat. The north end of 
"Stone Arabia Patent," extending from Diamond Rock 
north to Paensick Kill, was granted to Johannes Wendel 
by Governor Dongan, July 22, 1686. 

The Kayonderossera Tract, originally known as Ochser- 
antogue and later as Schuylerville Patent, was purchased of 
the Mahicansac sachems. Governor Dongan, in 1682, con- 
firmed the patent to Pieter Philipsen Schuyler, Cornelius 
Van Dyck, Jan Jansen Bleecker, Johannes Wendel, Dirck 
Wessels, David Schuyler, and Robert Livingston, for an | ' 
annual quit-rent of twenty bushels of winter wheat. The 
Schuyler Patent covered 265 square miles, including six 
miles in width on each bank of the Hudson, from St. 
Anthony Kill and Hoosac River, north to the junction of 
the Batten Kill. 

The first settler north of the junction of the Hoosac River 
was the fur-trader, Bartholomew Van Hogleboom. His 
Christian name " Bart " was given to the stream known once 
as Bart's Kill, now called the Batten Kill. The hamlet of 
Dovegat, nowCoveville, north of Stillwater, was first settled by 
Protestant Frenchmen banished by the Jesuits from Canada. 
Among these were Antoine Lespinard, John Van Loon, the 
Du Bisons, Lafleurs, and Villeroys. Lespinard Street, New 
York City, was named in honor of Antoine Lespinard. 

The venerable King Aepjen and his councillors of the 
Abenakis Democracy, upon the approach of King William's 
War, between 1683 and 1685, deeded Bear Island and the 
Taconac Tract to Robert Livingston and other Albany 
gentlemen. Governor Dongan in 1686 also granted Col. 
Pieter Schuyler, first Mayor of Albany, charter privileges to 
negotiate with Soquon and Maquon for five hundred acres 

i 



Mahican Boundaries and Christian Forts 67 

of their Hoosac or " Schaahtecogue Tract," and a thousand 
acres of the Mahicansacs' " Tionnonderoga Tract." 

The most northern Dutch settlement of AllDany County, 
N. Y., in 1689 proved to be that of the fur-trader, Bartel 
Vrooman, and six other famiHes at Old Saratoga. A pali- 
sade was built about Vrooman's house, and Lieut. Jochem 
Staats, Robert Sanders, Egbert Teunise, and ten Hoosac 
and Mohawk scouts were sent to defend the hamlet, until 
it was burned in the winter of 1690. 

The most northern English settlement of Old Berkshire, 
Mass., in 1733 was the mission founded among King Aepjen's 
Mahicansacs at Skatecook village on the site of Sheffield. 
Jonathan Sergeant, Samuel Hopkins, ' Timothy Woodbridge, 
Ephraim Williams, Sr., and others chartered the town of 
Stockbridge during the summer of 1739, and Col, John 
Stoddard and his militia built a meeting-house and school- 
house and patrolled the frontier trails. The Scotch-Irish 
who arrived from Londonderry, Ireland, in 17 18, located 
farther north in Pelham and Coleraine in 1735, and several 
English settlers pushed on to Charlemont and Pontoosac in 

1736. 

Thomas Wells of Saybrook, Conn,, and Ephraim Williams, 
Sr.,of Newton, Mass., in the spring of 1739, petitioned the 
General Court of Massachusetts to survey the towns of the 
upper Hoosac. The accompanying survey of "East and 
West Hoosuck," chartered later as Adams and Williams- 
town, was rendered by chairman Ephraim Williams, Sr., in 
his Report to the General Court as follows : 

We the subscribers have carefully viewed the lands on and 
near Hoosuck River and finding the same very accom- 
modable for settlement have by the assistance of Timothy 
Dwight, Esq., and Mr. Nath. Kellogg, surveys, laid out three 

' Rev. Samuel Hopkins, Memoirs of the Housatunnuk Indiafis, 1734, 




..A Plan of 53,040 .ces of Land lying on the Ea=t S.de of Ashuw,l,icooU Rive, and South B.ancb 
of Hoosuck R.vef, beg'ing at a HemlocW -l^ree mark'd 0+. 

-Sutveyed, May 1739, by the Needle of the sur.cy.ng instrument, 

By Mr. NATH. KELLOGG, 

Sumeiioc 



68 



Mahican Boundaries and Christian Forts 69 

townships (Cheshire, Adams and Williamstown) each of 
the contents of six miles square. Two of which adjoyning 
and lye on Hoosuck River the other on the Mayoonsuck 
(Mayoonsac), being the northern branch thereof about three 
miles northward of the lowest of the two towns all which will 
fully appear by the plans herewith humbly presented. We 
have not perfected all the lines occasioned by the Great 
Opposition we met with from Sundry Gent'n from Albany 
a particular account of which we are ready to lay before 
y'r Excellency and Honours if thereto required, and are 
your Excellency's and Hon's most obedient and dutiful 
servants. 

Eph'm Williams / Committee. 
Thomas Wells ) 
Boston, 
June 6, 1739. 

Owing to the opposition of the Gentlemen of Albany, the 
Privy Council of England on March 10, 1741, advised Gov. 
Jonathan Belcher to establish the northern boundary of 
Massachusetts. Richard Hazen of Haverhill was engaged to 
make the survey and according to his Journal, ^ he stood on 
the highest peak in the northeastern corner of the present 
town of Williamstown, known as Mount Hazen, on Satur- 
day morning, April 12, 1741. His piercing eye took in the 
windings of the intervals at his feet. Northwest through 
the Hoosac Pass of the Taconacs gleamed the sunny fields of 
the "Patroon of Hoosac," lighted with fitful shadows and 
sunshine amid the April showers. Hazen doubted the rights 
of the hearth-logs of the Dutch burghers situated in the 
Kreigger Rock neighborhood and about "Weepmg Rocks" 
in Pownal, Vt., near the Massachusetts borders. 

Surveyor Hazen's party arrived at the Indian war-trail 
on the east bank of Hoosac River, near the junction of 

^Boston Gazette, Feb. 19, 1754. 



70 The Hoosac Valley | 

Rattlesnake Brook, during the afternoon and recorded 
that: "It was with difficuhy that we waded the River and 
lodged on ye West side. ... It Clouded over before Night 
and rained some time before day, which caused us to stretch 
Our blankets and lye under them on ye bare ground, which 
was the first bare ground we laid on after we left Northfield. 
The field where Hazen encamped is to-day known as Bas- 
com's Meadow. 

On Sunday, April 13th, the surveyors ascended Northwest 
Hill and continued west to the summit of the Taconacs 
They christened the peak. Mount Belcher, in honor of Gov 
Jonathan Belcher, that it might be a "Standing Boundaryi 
as Endicutt's Tree." The survey was continued to the' 
Hudson, and it was reported to be twenty-one miles and 
sixty rods from the west bank of the Hoosac River to 
the east bank of the Hudson at a point eighty poles 
south of the First Sprout of the Mohawk below Cohoes 
Falls. 

The western boundary of Massachusetts Bay was dis- 
cussed at Hartford, Conn., in 1773. After the Revolution, 
on December 2, 1785, Congress appointed Thomas Hutchins, 
John Ewing, and David Rittenhouse to survey the line 
and it was established December 16, 1786. Controversies 
arose and many years later James Duane, Robert Living- 
ston, Robert Yates, John Haring, Melancthon Smith, and 
Egbert Benson of New York; and John Lowell, James 
Sullivan, Theophilus Parsons, and Rufus King of Massa- 
chusetts surveyed the present line, confirmed by Congress, 
January 3, 1855. Russell Dorr of New York and John Z. 
Goodrich of Massachusetts set the present State Line 
markers. 

A marble post now marks the northwest corner of Massa- 
chusetts, and near it stands another monument in Moon 
Hollow, a mile east of the summit of Mount Belcher, 



Mahican Boundaries and Christian Forts 71 

denoting the southwest corner of Vermont. The present 
western boundary of Vermont, however, was not surveyed 
until June 8, 18 12. 

While the Dutch and English of New York and New Eng- 
land were contending over their boundaries, the French of 
New France were crowding down the Champlain and Con- 
necticut valleys, more for religious supremacy than for 
territory to colonize. The Hoosac Valley was encompassed 
by three of the most powerful strongholds of New England, 
New York, and New France, including Fort Massachusetts 
on the upper Hoosac, Fort Albany on the Hudson, and Fort 
St. Frederic at Crown Point on Lake Champlain. Indeed 
the borders of the Hoosacs' hunting-grounds were fortified 
by as many as forty stockade forts within seventy-five miles 
of the State Line markers of Vermont and Massachusetts. 
No less than ten different forts occupied the exposed 
portals along the war-trails of the interior valley between 
1703 and 1777. 

Some time after the English conquest, the Duke of York 
ascended the throne as King James II. In July, 1688, before 
the close of his reign, he confirmed the Hoosac Patent covering 
the meadow-land in central Hoosac. In December, following, 
he fled to King Louis XIV. of France and was succeeded by 
King William of Holland. During the English Revolution, 
the Roman Catholic adherents of King James II. in the 
colonies met the opposition of King William's Separatist 
Councils. Those religious and political bickerings among 
the Albany Gentlemen resulted in the Dutch village of 
Corlear, now Schenectady, being left without proper guards. 
On February 8, 1690, a party of one hundred and foiu-teen 
French soldiers, headed by the Mohawk sachem Kryn, with 
eight of his Caughnawagas and sixteen Algonquins entered 
Fort Schenectady and massacred sixty settlers and captured 
ninety prisoners. The aged and children were abandoned 



.--A^e- ^1. 



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Dongan during reign of King James 1 1., July 28, 1688. It is recorded in 
Vol. VI. of Patents {pp. 344-345) , at Office of Secretary of State, Albany 
Capitol. 

73 



74 The Hoosac Valley 

and twenty-five lost their limbs on the frigid flight through 
the snow to Albany. 

At that time the Iroquois were contemplating an alliance 
with either the English or French before King William's 
War. The Onondaga Council met in April following the 
IMassacre of Schenectady, and Governor Bellamont sent 
Amout Comelisen Viele, sire of Louis Viele of Fort Schagh- 
ticoke village, as the sole representative of the English. 
He was joined at Albany, however, April 14th, by Johannes 
Schuyler, John Bleecker, and John Baptist Van Eps. The 
party arrived at Onondaga Castle four days later and found 
the Council in full session. The Jesuit Fathers from Canada, 
clad in flowing black gowns or cassocks, together with the 
gaily uniformed French officers, were lavishing presents 
among the councillors. La Grande Gueule (the eloquent 
orator) had nearly been w^on by the French, and a careless 
word of Viele's might have enraged the menacing assem- 
blage about the blazing council-fire. 

Viele, equal to his charge as the English diplomatist, first 
hung the Protestant belt of wampum of "Brother Corlear" 
beside " Yonnondio's " Roman Catholic belt so that the 
councillors need not call his message "an empty word." He 
then referred to the Mohawk and Hoosac scouts situated at 
Skeetcook and Skatecook on the Hoosac, and said: "They 
are well placed and a good guard; they are our children, 
and we shall take care that they do their duty." He knew 
that it would please the Mohawk sachem Kryn and the 
Onondaga sachem Geronkonte to refer patronizingly to their 
Hoosac conquerors, under Soquon and Maquon of the 
Mahicans, as "their children!" He added that " 'Brother 
Corlear' would build forts, chapels, and plough their corn- 
field and protect their children." The Council closed April 
28th, although neither the English nor French had, as yet, 
won a firm alliance with the Iroquois. 



Mahican Boundaries and Christian Forts 75 

During August, 1690, Gen. Fitz John Winthrop of Con- 
necticut rallied several hundred colonists and set out to 
punish the Canadas for the massacres at Schenectady. 
He marched his troopers as far as the drowned lands 
about Whitehall where many fell ill, and he was forced 
to return to Fort Albany. Young Johannes Schuyler, know- 
ing the doubtful attitude of the Alohawk and Hoosac 
scouts, rallied one hundred warriors and forty Dutch and 
English volunteers. He marched to Canada and devastated 
the country about St. Francois La Prairie village of 
Kryn's "Praying Warriors," south of Montreal, and re- 
turned to Albany, August 31st, only a few days after 
General Winthrop. 

The next season, Mayor Pieter vSchuyler, an elder brother 
of Capt. Johannes Schuyler, burned La Prairie village, and 
had his party been a trifle larger, he would have become 
master of Montreal. Bancroft considered Col. Pieter 
Schuyler, the "Washington of his time." The Mohawk and 
Hoosac scouts called him Quider (the Indian's Friend) and 
he was appointed Recording Secretary at the Indian Confer- 
ences and aided in winning the Iroquois alliance for the 
English. 

One of the largest conferences held at the Albany Court 
House took place in October, 1700. The session lasted a 
week and Governor Bellamont met fifty sachems from both 
the Abenakis and Iroquois nations. The "City of Cannon ' ' 
was known thereafter as the "House of Peace." However, 
the Onondaga orator complained that "The Albany forts 
were unworthy the King of England ! " After Major-General 
Ingoldsby and Captain Weeme mustered the Fort Albany 
militia, the w4se sachem discovered many of the British 
soldiers to be destitute of breeches, shoes, and stockings. 
He exclaimed sneeringly to Governor Bellamont: "Do 3-ou 
think us such fools as to believe a king who cannot clothe 



76 The Hoosac Valley 

his soldiers can protect us from the French with their 1400 
men all in good condition ! ' ' 

Governor Bellamont died in March, 1701, and Lieutenant- 
Governor Nanfan met the sachems again during the summer. 
In spite of the fact that "Yonnondio, " Governor Calliers 
of New France, had quite outdone the English during June 
in caressing the "Mourning Sachem," Geronkonte of the 
Onondagas, on both cheeks, he deeded King William III. the 
Iroquois hunting-grounds between Lake Erie, Ontario, 
and Huron in July, 1701, and made a firm alliance with 
the English. 

However, during Queen Anne's War in 1704, unknown to 
"Brother Corlear," the Mohawk and Hoosac scouts made 
a treaty of peace with their Caughnawagas and St. Francis 
kindred under the Jesuits of Canada, not to molest each 
other's domains. The Hoosac-Housatcnac rivers were 
agreed upon as a line of neutrality, and all of Father Rale's 
scalping forays were sent against the English Pilgrims of 
New England east of that line. The Dutch settlers west of 
that line were not molested until about the opening of King 
George's War. As a result of the treaty, the Canadas accom- 
panying Hertel de Rouville burned Deerfield in March, 1704, 
and four years later Haverhill on the Merrimac was de- 
stroyed by flames. The English captives in each instance 
were led to Montreal and thence to Quebec's prison-pens — 
the headquarters of the Governor-General and his Jesuit 
chaplains. 

Father Sebastian Rale was commander-in-chief of the 
Jesuit palisaded mission towns for forty years and resided 
at Norridgewock on the upper Kennebec in the King's 
Woods of Maine, between 1695 and 1724. He was a Latin 
scholar and compiled an Abenakis Dictionary, founded on 
Latin derivations, which is now deposited in Harvard Uni- 
versity Library. Not only did he teach his warriors to read, 



Mahican Boundaries and Christian Forts 'j'j 

write, pray, and fight, but he replaced their Kinte-kaye 
(Devil-dance) with a mock ceremony of absolution, during 
which he hoisted the banner of the Church of Rome before 
the door of his forest chapel, "on which was depicted a cross 
surrounded by bows and arrows!" 

The governors of New York and New England often 
urged the kindred of the Hoosac and Mohawk scouts situ- 
ated at St. Francis and St. Regis Jesuit missions, to return 
to Schaghticoke villages on the Housatonac and Hoosac 
under King Aepjen and Soquon. The Albany and Boston 
traders, however, charged double the London and Montreal 
prices for food, clothing, and firearms. The sachems replied 
that : " As soon as Ye goods are cheaper then we will return 
and consult about having Ministers in our Castles, to instruct 
us in Ye Christian faith, for then we can afford to buy a good 
honest Coat to go to Church with all, which we cannot now, 
but it would be scandalous to come to Church with a Bear 
Skin on our Backs!" 

A price was finally set upon Father Rale's head by the 
New England governors. His mission village was burned 
three times: first in 1704, again in 1722, and on August 12, 
1724, Captains Moulton and Harmon surprised the town. 
Lieutenant Jaques broke down Father Rale's mission-house 
door, and he was slain at the foot of his mission cross in 
company with twenty-six veteran warriors. The venerable 
sachem, Mogg Megone, described by Whittier, was among 
the captives taken to Boston and Rales village was left in 
ashes for the third and last time. 

On June 30, 1703, at the opening of Queen Anne's War, 
Governor Cornbury reported to the Lords of Trade that he 
had repaired the stone Fort Schenectady and built the stock- 
ade Fort Nastagione (St. Ange) on Green Island, Fort 
Half-Moon at the junction of St. Anthony Kill at Stillwater, 
and Fort Schaghticoke near the junction of the Tomhannac 



78 The Hoosac Valley 

with the Hoosac. Those forts cost nearly £80 each, and 
he proposed biiilding another stockade at Saratoga in order 
to give satisfaction to the Mohawk and Hoosac scouts patrol- 
Ung the war-trails. 

Fort Saratoga was btult six years later, diiring Francis 

Nicholson's siege against the Canadas in 1709. Col. Pieter 

Schuyler and three hundred soldiers of Nicholson's arm}-, 

composed of fifteen thousand men, were sent ahead to build 

forts and militar>' roads. Fort Ingoldsby was erected on 

the ate of Fort Half-Moon in Stillwater, Fort Saratoga near 

'" :^ord over the Hudson north of Greenwich highway 

:. .^e, Fort Nicholson at the Carrying Place on the site of 

Fort Exiward, and Fort Anne at Wood Creek Forks on the 

site of WhitehaU. Nicholson's first expedition, like his 

second in 171 1, met defeat before he reached Canada. He 

'--r-^ed Fort- A-— ^ snd Nicholson and marched his troopers 

^ to For . . .', At the close of Queen Anne's Wht 

in 1713 Forts Saratoga, Ingoldsby, and Schaghticoke were 

the 0!i1v frriirier r&rr/^/arts of Albany. At least six different 

.at Old Saratoga between the found- 
ing of Port W 1690 and Fort Clinton in 1746, 

forts of New York and Massachusetts 

- 

1 or r ^.bout every five years. Philip 

L: Fort Saratoga during October 1721 under 

the cr ^apt. ' - Helling. But during the inter- 

een 1713 ar opening of King George's War in 

1744, there v/ere thiny-^jne years of x>eace along the New York 
frontier, but frer, avage forays took place on the New 

England bor^: of the Hoosac-Housatonac rivers. 

7" '" ^.ny an i . officials did not build any formidable 

" ' :ng ^*e-v France, althou^ the French during 

;,' ' ' -it. The Governor-General spent 

$5 ^^^/>'^>' "i; "Gibraltar Fortress" on Cape 

Bretr." T '-:' [ .. /aisbur^ Nova Scotia; and on May 18, 



Mahican Boundaries and Christian Forts 79 

1 73 1, a log stockade was completed at Chimney Point on 
Lake Champlain and christened Fort St. Frederic. The 
latter fort, a menacing one, was only forty miles north of 
Fort Saratoga, and about seventy-five from Fort Albany 
and the site of Fort Massachusetts of the Dutch and English. 

Three years later, in 1734, the log stockade. Fort St. 
Frederic, was replaced by a Hmestone, bomb-proof fortress, 
second in strength only to the stronghold at Quebec. The 
garrison in 1 746 consisted of one hundred and twenty soldiers, 
and the ramparts, which were twenty-five feet thick, were 
mounted with twenty-two guns. The citadel was an octagon 
tower fifty feet in diameter and three stories high. The 
third stor}', a bomb-proof chamber, had walls seven feet 
thick and contained ten 9-pounder guns, twenty patararoes, 
several blunderbusses, muskets, and pistols all ready for 
action. 

The same spring (1739) that Gov. Jonathan Belcher or- 
dered the survey of the upper Hoosac towns, Lieut. -Gov. 
George Clark of New York "directed that a line of forts be 
erected between Albany and Saratoga." During June, 1744, 
King George's War, known in New England as Shirley's 
War, was declared. Gov. WilHam Sliirley that season 
ordered a cordon of three or four forts built foiir or five 
miles south of Hazen's Line of Alassachusetts, at intervals 
of six or eight miles between Fort Dummer on the Connec- 
ticut and the upper Hoosac. 

Fort Shirley was completed in the town of Heath on the 
upper Deerfield, October 30, 1744; ^o^^ Pelham in the town 
of Rowe, five miles west of Fort Shirley, in the spring of 1 745 ; 
and Fort Massachusetts in Adams on the upper Hoosac, 
fourteen miles west of Capt, Aloses Rice's Charlemont 
Tavern, during the summer of 1745. Governor Clinton on 
June 5, 1744. also garrisoned Fort Saratoga, built in 1739, 
and in 1745 rebuilt the fort from its foundation. He was 



8o The Hoosac Valley 

not able to obtain volunteer soldiers willing to garrison the 
fort, and it was unoccupied at the time Marin's massacre 
of Schuyler's Mills took place in November of that season. 

The cordon of Massachusetts border forts was placed 
under the command of Capt, William Williams, a nephew of 
Col. John Stoddard, commander of Old Berkshire militia 
during the spring of 1745. In June, Governor Shirley com- 
missioned William Williams colonel of a regiment in Gen. 
William Pepperell's army of New England Rangers which 
was sent to capture the "Gibraltar Fortress" of the 
French at Louisburgh. The command of the border forts of 
Massachusetts fell to Ephraim Williams, Jr., a half cousin of 
Col. William Williams. He made his headquarters at Fort 
Shirley, and commanded three hundred and fifty garrison 
soldiers posted at the several forts: Northfield, Falltown, 
Coleraine, Shirley, Pelham, Massachusetts, Collars, Shat- 
tucks, Bridgemans, Deerfield, Rhodetown, and New Hamp- 
ton. He also controlled the scouts patrolling the trails 
between Forts Number Four and Dummer on the Connec- 
ticut, Forts Half-Moon, Saratoga, Schaghticoke, St. Croix, 
Massachusetts, Pontoosac, and Deerfield. 

The capture of the "Gibraltar" of the French on June 8, 
1745, caused the jubilant colonists to ring the Boston and 
Albany church bells. The Pilgrim Fathers exclaimed that 
"God had gone out of the way of His common providence 
in a remarkable and miraculous manner!" The New 
England victory over the French was followed later by 
revengeful forays of the Canadas. Colonel Marin and 
Lieutenant Beauvais headed five hundred French and St, 
Francis warriors down the Hudson during the autumn. 
The chaplain, Abbe Frangois Picquet, pointed out Schuyler's 
Mills on the map as a prize to capture. The settlement 
then contained thirty-one dwellings, four large mills, many 
barns and barracks for slaves. Schuyler's brick mansion 



Mahican Boundaries and Christian Forts 8i 

contained loopholes for the discharge of small guns; but, 
like Fort Saratoga, half a mile south, it was without a garri- 
son when IMarin's half frozen warriors entered the sleeping 
hamlet on November 8, 1745. 

Lieutenant Beauvais, personally acquainted with Philip 
Pieterse Schuyler, entered his mansion and demanded his 
surrender, promising him personal protection. The patroon, 
however, refused to ask for quarter and was slain with 
thirty other settlers. One hundred and one captives were 
taken, half of whom were Negro slaves. The patrolling 
scout, Robert Sanders, and his family were the only settlers 
to make their escape to Albany. The massacre was closed 
before sunrise and the captives, half clad, and many of them 
barefooted, were forced to march over the frozen trail to the 
Lydius Mansion, which was the most northern English settle- 
ment of the New York frontier on the site of Fort Edward. 
The party was joined there b}^ eleven other captives and 
arrived at Fort St. Frederic December 3d; and five days 
later the captives were placed in Montreal prison-pens. 

During March, 1746, Gov. George CHnton completed a fort 
at Schuyler's Mills which was christened Fort Clinton, but 
it was impossible to find volunteer soldiers brave enough to 
garrison the fort. At last Capt. Henry Livingston, in No- 
vember, headed four companies of regulars from Fort Albany 
and mounted twelve large cannon on the ramparts. In 
March, 1747, Lieutenant Herbin headed a party of French 
and St. Francis warriors down the Hudson and attempted to 
burn Fort Clinton. 

Captain Livingston was succeeded in June, 1747, by Cap- 
tain Jordan, and Gen. Rigaud de Vaudreuil (known as 
General Rigaud by historians, in order to distinguish him 
from his brother. Gov. Pierre Rigaud de Vaudreuil, com- 
monly spoken of as de Vaudreuil) sent Lieut. Le Corne St. 
Luc with two hundred Indians and twenty Frenchmen to 



S2 The Hoosac Valley 

attempt again to burn Fort Clinton. They failed to accom- 
plish the work, after which General Rigaud and his war- 
party arrived. They, too, were forced to return to Fort 
St. Frederic without setting a torch to the stockade. 

The last garrison of Fort Clinton consisted of New Jersey 
troops under the command of Col. Pieter Schuyler. Owing 
to colonial bickerings, the food supply ran short, and two 
hundred and twenty hungry soldiers shouldered their guns 
and deserted their post. Only forty men remained to 
defend the guns, under Colonel Schuyler. After this news 
reached Governor Clinton in New York City, he ordered the 
ill-placed fort burned. A torch was set to the ruins October 
5, 1747, after Colonel Schuyler had removed the cannon to 
Stillwater. A few years ago a pile of British cannon was 
unearthed on Quock Island, in the Hudson opposite Me- 
chanicsville. They are believed to have been the remnants 
of Fort Clinton's artiller}% buried there b}' Colonel Schuyler 
in 1747. 

The forests stretching between Stillwater and Fort St. 
Frederic until the close of the Seven Years' War in 1763 were 
left to wandering war-parties of French and Indians. After 
the Fall of Quebec in the autumn of 1759, General Wolfe 
found in the iVrchives of the fortress Colonel ]\Iarin's Jour- 
nal, relating to the massacre of Schuyler's ]Mills in Old 
Saratoga during 1745. It was later presented to Gen. 
Philip Schuyler of Revolutionary fame, and is now among 
the valuable relics in his Old Mansion at Schuylerville. 



CHAPTER IV 

FORT SCHAGHTICOKE AND KNICKERBACKER's COLONY 

I676-I759 

Here clad in ancieiit honor, dwelt 

The Knickerbacker race, 
And wisely ruled in hall and bower, 
And held their old manorial power 

With firm and honest grace. 

Mrs. Sigourney, Schaghticoke and the Knickerbacker s. 

Hoosac Patent, 1688 — King William's War, 1689 — Queen Anne's War, 1703 — 
Fort Schaghticoke, 1703 — Knickerbacker Colony, 1709 — First Dutch 
Church, 1714 — Alahican and Mohawk Sachem's Visit to London, 1710 — 
Death of Soquon, 1710 — King George's War, 1744 — Kittlehuyne Mas- 
sacre, 1746 — French and Indian War and Last of the Schaghticokes, 
1754 — Queen Esther's Pilgrimages to Witenagemot Vale of Peace — 
Soquon's Old Schaghticoke Burial-Field — Mawwehu's New Schaghticoke 
Burial-Field. 

THE " Gentlemen of Albany" kept a covetous eye upon 
the Schaghticokes' fertile cornfields twenty-seven 
years after the planting of the Witenagemot Oak in 1676, 
before Fort Schaghticoke was built in 1703. Pieter Schuy- 
ler, the first mayor of Albany, was granted charter privilege 
to negotiate for five hundred acres of meadow-land of the 
" Schaahtecogue Tract" on July 22, 1686, although he failed 
to do so, owing to a general Indian uprising before King 
William's War. 

The first land deeded by the Schaghticokes to the Christ- 
ians within the environs of the Hoosac Valley proper was the 
Hoosac Patent. ^ The patent was granted by Gov. Thomas 

' See Chapter III, pp. 72-73. 

83 



84 The Hoosac Valley 

Dongan on June 2, 1688, to Maria Van Resnselaer and Hen- 
drick Van Ness of Albany, Garret Tunisson (Van Vechten) 
of Catskill, and Jacobus Van Cortlandt of New York City, 
and confirmed by the Duke of York, as King James II., in 

July. 

The Hoosac Patent covered seventy thousand acres, 
including two miles in width on each bank of Skatecook 
Creek (Hoosac River of blended waters) ; and extended up 
the river from the Devil's Chimney opposite the Fallen-hill 
in Old Schaghticoke to Falls Quequick ; thence up the valley 
to the sandy island known as Nach-a-quick-quack, the 
Ashawagh, or land between the junction of the Little Hoosac 
with the Big Hoosac. The annual quit-rent exacted for 
this vast manor-land was "ten Bushells of good Sweet Mar- 
chantable winter Wheat, delivered Att the City of Albany." 

During the opening raids of King William's War, in 1689, 
Hendrick Van Rensselaer of Fort Crailo partly negotiated 
with Captain Soquon for a tract six miles square in Old 
Schaghticoke, although the deed was not confirmed until 
1 707 during Queen Anne's War. Meanwhile, Hendrick Van 
Ness transferred half of his right in Hoosac Patent to his 
brother Jan Van Ness on February 17, 1699, and on October 
18, 1706, Hendrick Van Ness and Jacobus Van Cortlandt 
deeded Kiliaen Van Rensselaer and Johannes Van Vechten 
the shares of their parents, Maria Van Rensselaer and 
Garret Tunisson-Van Vechten. Later on, November i6th, 
Hendrick Van Ness and Jacobus Van Cortlandt gave each 
other mutual release of joint tenancy of their Hoosac Patent 
manor-lands. 

The Moravian missionaries of Count Zinzendorf's staff, 
laboring among the Hoosac and Mohawk scouts in 1742, 
preserved the tradition that Soquon and Maquon were held 
"chiefest in dignity" among the Indian councillors who met 
the royal Governors at the Albany Conferences held in the 




85 



86 The Hoosac Valley 

Old Court House. Maquon, known as Minichqua, received 
a mortal wound from a party of four Negro slaves while visi- 
ting Albany during the summer of 1702. He lamented that 
his death should be caused by those who had ' ' no courage of 
heart," but Soquon in his speech to Governor Cornbury said : 
"Upon his death bed, our Great Sachem desired that no 
revenge should be taken, saying that he forgave his offenders 
and prayed that they might be reprieved." Maquon was 
beloved and honored as the Mahican Hero and war-captain 
during the Mohawk and Hoosac War, "and his last wish 
associates with his memory," says Ruttenber, "the noble 
attributes of the Gods." He was buried in the Schaghti- 
cokes' burial-field west of the Council Tree ; and the principal 
Negro offender causing his death was executed by order of 
Governor Cornbury on August 19, 1702. 

Upon the approach of Queen Anne's War, Governor 
Cornbury directed Secretary Robert Livingston, to build 
Fort Schaghticoke during the early spring of 1703 on the 
"Great Meadow," a mile east of the Council Tree, near 
the Old Schaghticoke highway. The watch-towers oc- 
cupied the exposed angles of the stockade. The cellars 
of the barracks within the stockade were ploughed down 
a century ago, but are still indicated by grass-grown hol- 
lows near the ancient apple-trees in the meadow north of 
the red schoolhouse. The Louis Viele well, known as the 
Nancy and Rebecca Groesbeck well to-day, with its ancient 
sweep, near the corner of Old Schaghticoke and Reynolds 
roads, was undoubtedly used as the fort well. The "God's 
Acre" is believed to have been located southwest of the 
stockade, near the border of the Groesbeck orchard, south 
of Col, William Knickerbacker's mansion, known to-day as 
the Barnett Place. 

Governor Cornbury reported to the Lords of Trade, June 
30, 1703, that Fort Schaghticoke cost about £80 and that 




















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87 



88 The Hoosac Valley 

he considered it one of the most important out-posts of 
Albany. It proved the headquarters of the River Indian 
scouts, composed of Hoosacs and Mohawks, engaged to 
patrol the Ticonderoga war-paths of the French and St. 
Francis warriors. There were nearly one thousand warriors 
located in the Hoosac Valley of Mingling Waters under the 
command of Soquon in 1703, including his old Hoosacs or 
Soquonsacs, known as Schaghticokes.Pennacocks, Abnaquis, 
Pequots, Narragansetts, and Wampanoags of New England 
forests, and their kindred Mahicansacs of the Catskill and 
Helderberg and the Mohawk hunting-grounds. 

The Hoosac and Mohawk warriors between 1676 and 1703 
had degenerated because of the use of the fur-traders' rum 
to such an extent that Soquon could not be relied upon to 
command Fort Schaghticoke's scouts. Governor Cornbury 
and his Council urged a stalwart leader to head a colony of 
Dutch tenantry from Albany and locate in Old Schaghticoke, 
not only to command, but to Christianize the Hoosacs and 
Mohawks. On February 28, 1707, Mayor David Davidse 
Schuyler of Alban}'- secured Soquon's deed to the "Schaah- 
tecogue Tract 2 by 2 by 12 by 14 miles in extent." The 
north line began at a point in centre of Hudson River two 
miles south of the junction of the Skatecook Creek-Hoosac 
River — and extended east twelve miles. The south line 
two miles below the north line extended from the centre 
of Hudson River east fourteen miles, parallel with the north 
line. The tract was bounded on the south by lands owned 
by Barent Albertse Bratt and Egbert Teunis. 

At the same time, Herman Jansen Knickerbacker of 
Albany negotiated with the venerable seer Soquon for the 
deed to his Witenagemot Manor west of the ancient channel 
of Tomhannac Creek and south of the Hoosac River. Both 
the Knickerbacker and Schuyler tracts were confirmed by 
Queen Anne during December, 1707. It is recorded that 







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89 



90 The Hoosac Valley 

Mayor David Davidse Schuyler and the Albany Council 
rendered Soquon and his councillors as payment for their 
tracts, granted February 28, 1707: "2 blankets, 12 duffel-cloth 
coats, 20 shirts, 2 gunns, 12 pounds of powder, 36 pounds of 
lead, 8 gallons of rum, 2 casks of beer, 2 rolls of tobacco, 10 
gallons of Madeira wine and a number of pipes." Soquon 
was to continue to receive annually in the month of October 
for ten years: "i blanket, i shirt, i pair of stockings, i lap 
or apron, i keg of rum, 3 pounds of powder, 6 pounds of lead, 
and 12 pounds of tobacco." Besides, twelve acres of the tract 
granted was fenced at the city's expense and set apart as a 
planting-ground for Soquon and his chieftains, who deeded 
the Schaghticoke Tract to the Christians, in order to protect 
the Indian cornfields from the Dutch burghers' pigs and cows. 
This twelve-acre cornfield, known as Tioshoke, was located 
on the north bank of the Hoosac, near the junction of the 
Ticonderoga trail of the Owl Kill with the Hoosac Road. 

The western line of Hoosac Patent remained indefinitely 
bounded upon the eastern border of the " Schaagtehogue 
Tract" until the Albany Mayor, Robert Sanders, or his 
successor, Johannes Hansen, in 1754, commissioned John J. 
Bleecker of Old Schaghticoke to survey both tracts and estab- 
lish the present known bounds. The western line of the 
Hoosac Patent abuts on the Schaghticoke Tract, bearing 
north 20° through a marked pine tree on the "Fallen-hill," 
opposite the Devil's Chimney. 

Gov. John Lovelace, who succeeded Governor Cornbury in 
December, 1708, directed the Schaghticoke Tract to be sur- 
veyed and divided into farms, and leased to Dutch tenantry. 
Queen Anne of England, during the spring of 1709, appointed 
Col. Pieter Schuyler councillor and Richard Ingoldsby 
governor of New York, and despatched an army of British 
regulars to Albany to defend the New York frontier against 
the French and St. Francis warriors from Canada. 



Fort Schaghticoke and Knickerbacker's Colony 91 

Johannes Knickerbacker, eldest son of Herman Jansen 
Knickerbacker, on October, 13, 1709, leased the first farm on 
the Schaghticoke Tract, It contained ' ' 30 morgens ' ' — about 
sixty acres and he contracted to pay an annual quit-rent of 
"16 pounds and 10 shillings" to be rendered in "37}^ bushels 
of good merchantable winter wheat," At that time Captain 
Knickerbacker was about thirty years of age and a miller 
and master brick-maker by trade. He was placed in com- 
mand of Fort Schaghticoke and founded the Knickerbacker 
Colony. He was joined by his father, then sixty-one years 
old, and several of their trusted neighbors from Albany: 
Johannes De Wanderlaer, Johannes Heermans Vischer, 
Curset Voeder, Louis Viele, Derrick Van Vechten, Martin 
De Lamotte, Wouter and Adriance Quackenbosch, Pieter 
Yates, David Schuyler, Wouter Groesbeck, Philip Livingston, 
Ignace Kipp, and Cornelius Van Denburgh. 

The Knickerbackers' log dwelling was built on the site 
of the present brick colonial mansion, a mile west of Fort 
Schaghticoke, near the Schaghticokes' Witenagemot Tree. 
The first saw-mill and grist-mill of the settlement were built 
about the same time as the stockade fort in 1703, on the 
Abraham Viele brook — a branch of the Tomhannac Creek 
below Buttermilk Falls, a mile east of the fort. Those mills 
proved to be the first mills on the east bank of the Hudson 
north of Greenbush. The mill-stone is still doing duty as 
door-stone to William P. Button's house, standing on the 
site of the Abraham Viele homestead. The mill-dam was 
located ten rods north of the Viele house, in the dark ravine 
leading to Spook Hollow, where, during 1878, one of the 
timbers two feet in diameter was unearthed. 

Herman Jansen Knickerbacker, sire of Capt. Johannes 
Knickerbacker ist, was a son of Johannes Van Bergen 
Knickerbacker, born in Friesland, Holland, in 1648. He 
entered the Dutch Navy and served under General Van 



92 The Hoosac Valley 

Tromp and General De Ruyter during the Netherlands' 
period of naval victories, and was wounded in the Battle 
of Solebay off the English coast, where the Dutch war-ships 
were attacked by the combined force of the English and 
French war-fleets. Later young Knickerbacker and Jo- 
hannes De Ruyter, Jr., were commissioned to sail for Fort 
Orange in New Netherland. Both settled in Hoosac Valley, 
Knickerbacker on the lower Hoosac and De Ruyter in 
central Hoosac. 

Herman Jansen Knickerbacker married the daughter of 
Dr. Myndert Hermance Van De Bogert of Dutchess County, 
N. Y., the famous surgeon of the Dutch war-ship, E?tdraaght, 
whom Gov. Peter Stuyvesant appointed commissary-general 
of Fort Orange for a time. He often held political contro- 
versies with testy Peter and once attempted to throw the 
lordly ruler overboard while crossing over Hudson ferry. 
Dr. Van De Bogert 's ungovernable temper is said to have 
caused his own violent death. 

On his maternal side, Herman Jansen Knickerbacker 
hailed from the Jansen family of Masterlandt, and was a 
kinsman of Roelof Jansen, the opper-boiiwmeester (chief 
farm-master), of Kiliaen Van Rensselaer's manor of Rens- 
selaerwyck, on the west bank of the Hudson, in 1 63 1 . Young 
Knickerbacker was said to be a master Knickerbocker — 
(brick-maker). Washington Irving as "Diedrich Knicker- 
bocker," author of Knickerbocker's History of New York in 
1809, records that: "The Knickerbockers were the folk who 
lay stones upon their houses in windy weather lest they 
should be blown away." Others say that the name arose 
from "Knicker — to shake, and Beker — a goblet," which 
distinguished the race as being "sturdy toss-pots of yore." 
Old " Diedrich Knickerbocker" believed that the true origins 
of the name arose from " K nicker — to nod, and Boken — ■ 
books," signifying that his Friesland ancestors were "great 



Fort Schaghticoke and Knickerbacker's Colony 93 

nodders or dozers over books." True to their Holland 
origins, the}^ produced brick-makers, book-makers, and 
innumerable ' ' toss-pots ! ' ' 

Capt. Johannes Knickerbacker, 1st, of Fort Schaghticoke 
was the eldest son among Herman Jansen Knickerbacker's 
seven children, and inherited the Knickerbacker homestead 
at Old Schaghticoke on the Hoosac; and to Lawrence, his 
younger brother, was left the Van De Bogert homestead in 
Housatonac Valley. The oldest frame house in the Fort 
Schaghticoke colony was the homestead of Cornelius Van 
Denburgh. It was built in 1732, opposite Van Denburgh's 
ferry, between Old Schaghticoke and Stillwater, and the 
date in iron figures, still found on the huge chimney, 
undoubtedly marks the oldest house of the Hoosac Valley 
founders. It is now owned by Frank Pruyn. 

In 1704, the Church of England sent Thoroughgood Moor 
as chaplain to labor among the Hoosac and Mohawk scouts 
at Fort Schaghticoke and other outposts of Fort Albany. 
He won the enmity of the Dutch and English fur-traders by 
preaching against the sale of beer and rum to the River 
Indians, and was forced to retire to New York City in 
August, 1705. Thomas Barclay was appointed chaplain of 
the Albany border forts three years later, and while at 
Fort Anne in September, 17 10, he, too, complained that the 
degenerated warriors were lost to all that was noble or good, 
through use of the Christians' rum. 

The Council of Albany during the autumn of 1709 con- 
ceived of a scheme to impress the last of the Mahican and 
Mohawk sachems of the military power of England. To 
figure in this they chose the venerable Soquon of Great 
Soqui, King Etow Oh Koam of Great Unami, and Emperor 
Johannes of Great Minsi of the Abenakis Democracy ; King 
Brandt of Great Maquaas, and Emperor Hendrick of Great 
Enanthayonni of the Iroquois Confederacy, and set sail for 



94 



The Hoosac Valley 




London. The party, accompanied by Gen, Francis Nichol- 
son, Col. Pieter Schuyler, and the Indian interpreter, Capt. 
Abraham Schuyler, arrived in England during January, 1710. 
One of the sachems died, evidently the aged Soquon of the 

Hoosac Valley, then about 
1 10 years old, and was bur- 
ied at sea. Sir Charles 
Cotterel conducted the four 
other sachems to Mr. 
Arne's furnished apart- 
ment in King Street, Cov- 
ent Garden. They were 
royally entertained on 
April 19th by "Mother 
Anne," as they called the 
Queen. The sachems' por- 
traits were painted by the 
artist, I. Verelst, with the 
totemic crests of the Turtle, 
Bear, and Wolf, together 
with the hominy-pestle of 
the Delaware "squaw 
sachem," bow and arrow 
of the Mahican Wolves, 
and the flint-lock and belts 



The Squaw King, Etawa Caume 
(Etow Oh Koam). 

Race of Great Unami {Turtle Nation). 
Peace Maker of the River Indians, includ- 
ing the Delawares and Mohicans of the 
Abenakis Democracy. 



of wampum of Mohawk 
King Brandt and Emperor Hendrick, embroidered with 
the Swastika, denoting the peacemaker of the Iroquois. 

The royal Indians caused much interest in London. They 
sailed in the Queen's barge, visited Greenwich Hospital, 
Chapel of Whitehall, the Ships of War; and the Duke of 
Ormond commanded his Grenadier Guards for a review in 
Hyde Park. Later the sachems visited the Archbishop of 
Canterbury and each was presented with an English Bible. 



Fort Schaghticoke and Knickerbacker's Colony 95 



The party set sail on the ship Dragon, May 8th, and reached 
Boston on July 15, 1710. 

Emperor Hendrick, then a gallant of thirty-five years, 
was impressed with the poverty of thousands of the Palatines, 
then in a transitory state, 
huddled along the Surrey 
side of the river Thames. 
As a result he presented 
"Mother Anne" with his 
valuable Schoharie or Bear 
Tract for the flaxen-haired 
people to settle upon; and 
three thousand Palatines 
later set sail, accompanied 
by Governor Hunter for 
their "Promised Land of 
Schoharie. ' ' The ' ' Gentle- 
men of Albany," however, 
drove most of them down 
the Hudson to William 
Penn's Pennsylvania Col- 
ony. A few remained on 
German Flats about Fort 
Herkimer and Fort Day- 
ton, and near the junctions 
of East and West Canada 

Creek with the Mohawk. Those streams encircle the hills 
of the Royal Grant presented by Emperor Hendrick later 
to young William Johnson. 

The first Dutch Church of Old Schaghticoke was organized 
in 1 7 14 under the auspices of the Classis of Amsterdam. 
The log meeting-house was built on the southwest corner of 
Reynolds Road outside Fort Schaghticoke, near the Louis 
Viele homestead. Service was held by the Fort Albany 




The Hero, Maquon-Pauw, Emperor 
Johannes {Ho Nee Yeath Taw No 

Row). 
Race of Great Minsi (Wolf Nation). 

Hero of the Delawares and Mahicans of 

the Abenakis Democracy. 



96 



The Hoosac Valley 



chaplains. After the founding of the Protestant Church, 
the venerable Schaghticoke sachem addressed Governor 
Hunter saying: 

We must acquaint our Father that Sir Edmund Andros, 

some time Governor of 
the Province, planted a 
Tree of Welfare at Scack- 
kook under whose 
branches we sheltered 
and lived peaceably a 
long time (i 676-1 709), 
and the owners sold part 
of the land on one side 
of S cackk ok Creek 
(Hoosac River), and they 
were to live on the other 
side of the Creek, but the 
Christians would now 
have it on both sides of 
the Creek and Dispossess 
us of the lands we former- 
ly planted. 




The Flint-lock King Brandt (Sa Ga 
Yeath Oua Pieth Tow) . 



The first w^hiteman of the 



Race of Great Maguaas (Bear Nation) . -r;^ . , , , ^^ , 

Kins of the Six Nations of the Iroquois Kmckerbacker ^ Colony tO 

Confederacy. die was buried in the 

Schaghticokes' Witenage- 
mot burial-field in 1715, and Herman Jansen Knicker- 
backer was interred there in 1721. All the tenantry of 
the "Vale of Peace" owned their own "God's Acre" 
near their log dwelHngs, where to-day still lies the historic 
dust of the Dutch founders of Hoosac Valley, now over- 
grown with briar-tangles and Netherland roses. 

A Census of the Freeholders of Albany County was taken 
in 1722 and among the new^ names in Old Schaghticoke 



Fort Schaghticoke and Knickerbacker's Colony 97 



appear those of Samuel Doxie, Simon and Martin Daniels, 
Peter Winne, Abram Fort, and John J. Bleecker. Governor 
Burnett the same season addressed the Schaghticoke scouts, 
telling them that, "the money they squandered for rum, 
should be spent for food and 
clothing." The sachem re- 
plied : ' ' Therefore we desire 
our Father to order the tap 
or crane to be shut and to 
prohibit the selling of rum, 
for as long as the Christians 
will sell rum, our people will 
drink it." 

Twenty-five years later, 
in 1749, Peter Kalm, the 
Swedish naturalist, in his 
Travels, records that Albany 
was the largest fur-market 
on the continent, and adds 
that : " The Indians do not 
get one-tenth of the value 
of their goods. . . . The 
Merchants of Albany glory 
in tricks, and are highly 
pleased when they have 
given the poor Indian a greater portion of brandy than he 
can bear, and they can after that get all his goods for mere 
trifles." 

The last two gray-haired Schaghticoke sachems died in 
1 726 and the younger chieftains began to desert the Hoosac 
Valley of Mingling Waters. Mawwehu, the Pequot sachem of 
Pumpkin-Hook lodge in White Creek, together with the grand- 
father of Osceola — the subsequent leader of the Seminoles' 
Revolution in Florida in 1835 — wandered South on a hunting 




The Hero, Emperor Ilcndrick {Tee Yee 

Neen Ho Ga Row) . 

Race of Great Enanthayonni {Wolf 

Nation). Peace Maker of the Six 

Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy. 



98 The Hoosac Valley 

expedition in 1726. Mawwehu returned and settled in an 
uninhabited Connecticut vale, encircled by wooded hills, 
near the junction of St. Agnes Creek with Housatonac River. 
This vale he christened Pishgacticoke or Skatecook, signify- 
ing the blending of two streams, and in 1736 over a hundred 
of his Old Schaghticoke kindred had joined his New Schagh- 
ticoke lodge. The Moravian missionary, Christian Henry 
Rauch, first discovered Mawwehu's lodge in 1742 and built 
a forest chapel ; after which Dominie Mack christened Maw- 
wehu, Gideon, and baptized one hundred and fifty of his 
people. The English and Dutch fur-traders about 1763 
routed the Moravians, and most of their converted Indians 
of New Schaghticoke and Old Stockbridge migrated to 
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. 

The chieftain Keeperdo, known as Hoosac or Mahican 
Abraham, and Queen Esther, also, of Old Schaghticoke, with 
four hundred Hoosac, Pennacook, and Abnaquis warriors 
deserted Hoosac Valley and their Council Tree of Peace be- 
tween 1726 and 1733. Keeperdo located in the Wood Creek 
hunting-grounds about Skene Mountain, now Whitehall, 
and in 1730 pushed on to Ohio Valley. Keeperdo's village 
in Miami Valley became the birthplace of the grandfather of 
"Black Hawk" — the subsequent leader of the Indian Revo- 
lution of the Northwest against the invading Christians in 
1832. Queen Esther and her Schaghticokes located near 
Old Grey-Lock's Fort St. Regis lodge at Swanton Falls on 
river Missisquoi in lower Champlain Valley, Vt., and her 
warriors later migrated to IMississippi Valley. 

Governor Crosby held a conference with the last of the 
Schaghticokes in September, 1 733 , and urged them topersuade 
their kindred under Keeperdo and Queen Esther to return with 
their warriors and shelter beneath the branches and leaves of 
the "Tree of Peace." He promised to "take care that it 
flourish and grow." Queen Esther's St. Regis fugitives 



'Q 










5X0 


Q 


s 




•^ 


C> 


t3 


f^ 


S 


g 


« 


s^ 


^ 




^ 


K 


•'?* 




99 



loo The Hoosac Valley 

replied by letter: "We never have been otherwise than good 
subjects of the King of Great Britain. . . . We are English- 
men in our hearts and if any evil should happen, we shall 
knock at the door and acquaint you. . . . We are but 
ignorant people and poor because Rum is so plenty, which 
the Traders bring to us — we can't kill a deer while we are 
obliged to sell our powder and lead." The warriors never 
returned. 

General Rigaud's French and Indian army invaded the 
Hoosac Valley during King George's War in 1746. He sent 
eighteen fierce Ontario savages down the valley to plunder 
and massacre about Fort Schaghticoke, but they burned only 
the Dutch meeting-house. One of the warriors on the brow 
of Pudding-hill, however, fired a fatal ball, which killed 
Herman Van Vechten, son of Maj. Derrick Van Vechten, 
standing in the dooryard of the Van Vechten homestead, 
now owned by a descendant, Jacob Van Vechten. 

The Kittlehuyne massacre quickly followed the death of 
Herman Van Vechten. Daniel Kittlehuyne and his three 
brothers were upon friendly terms with the Schaghticokes ; 
little Anna, a daughter of Daniel, was a favorite with the 
squaws. The Ontario warriors, however, were enemies of 
the Schaghticokes and Mohawks and would as soon scalp 
them as the Christians. Daniel and Peter Kittlehuyne, 
while hunting deer on the banks of the Hoosac, met an 
ambuscade of Ontarios, one of whom fired and killed Peter. 
Daniel shot one savage and killed another with the butt of 
his gun. He fled to his cottage with the dead body of his 
brother thrown over his pony's back and set out at once for 
a wagon at Fort wSchaghticoke to remove his family to 
Albany. He had no more than arrived at the Derrick Van 
Vechten house when an avenging party of Ontarios sur- 
rounded his cottage with hideous war-whoops. His young- 
est brother with his bride from Lake St. Sacrement, little 



Fort Schaghticoke and Knickerbacker's Colony loi 

Anna, and his infant son were scalped and left in the burning 
cottage. His wife and brother Henry were taken captives 
and marched up the Owl Kill with General Rigaud's one 
hundred and five English and Dutch prisoners to Montreal 
and thence to Quebec prison-pens. The Kittlehuynes were 
ransomed and later settled on their farms in Old Schaghti- 

I coke. Mrs. Jacob Van Vechten is a descendant of Daniel 
Kittlehuyne. 

Gov, George Clinton on April 14, 1746, requested the 

; Albany Assembly to furnish regular militia to patrol the 
trails between Fort Albany and Fort Clinton (the latter was 
completed in March at Old Saratoga) and up the Hoosac 
from Fort Half -Moon at Stillwater to Fort Schaghticoke, 

; Fort St. Croix, and Fort Massachusetts. Fort Schaghti- 

' coke was rebuilt from its foundation during the spring of 
1746 and garrisoned by two companies of regulars; and 
three companies of regulars were posted also at Fort Half- 

' Moon, although it was not until November, 1746, that 
Capt. Henry Livingston mustered four companies of militia 
brave enough to take command of Fort Clinton. 

The Dutch meeting-house was rebuilt at Old Schaghticoke 
in the autumn of 1746 and Dominie Theodorus Frieling- 
huysen of Albany Dutch Church preached there quarterly 
until 1759. He won the enmity of the British regulars 
posted at Fort Albany and its outposts by preaching against 
an amusing theatrical performance entitled. The Recruiting 
Officer, acted upon a stage fitted up in a barn. The actors 
were all young colonels, ensigns, and other officers who, with 
painted cheeks, and dressed in great hoops, linsey-woolsey 
petticoats, and tow trousers and jackets, represented buxom 
Dutch lasses, while others of their number represented the 
lasses' "Bully Boys of Helderberg," and New England 
Yankee schoolmaster varlets. But the people of Albany 
considered "painted faces the very ultimatum of degen- 



102 The Hoosac Valley 

eracy."* Dominie Friclinghuysen, during September, 
1759, upon finding a staff, a pair of shoes, and a silver 
dollar beside his parsonage door, resigned and set sail for 
Holland. 

Grandfather Knickcrbacker's Bible, bearing the date of 
1682, is a long leather-bound volume with brass comers and 
clasps. It contains the records of marriage, birth, and dying 
days of the Hoosac Valley Knickerbacker family, and is 
reported to be the only extant copy of that edition of New 
Netherland Bibles in New York State. It was used on the 
sacred desk of the Dutch Church in Old Schaghticoke 
between 17 14 and 1759. The Knickerbacker Bible, Soquon's 
deed confirmed by Queen Anne in 1707, together with a por- 
trait of Col. Johannes Knickerbacker, ist, the Schaghticokes' 
ceremonial calumets, implements of war and occupation of 
soil were on exhibition at the Old Mansion until the death 
of Joseph Foster Knickerbacker — the "Poet of the Vale." 
The present proprietor of Knickerbacker IMansion has re- 
moved most of the valued relics of both the Schaghticoke 
and Knickerbacker races of lower Hoosac to his Bloodville 
IMansion at Ballston Spa, N. Y. The Knickerbacker Bible, 
for want of a lineal heir, will, after the passing of the present 
possessor, be deposited in the New York Historical Society 
Library. 

After the opening raid of the French and Indian War on 
May 28, 1754, Lieut.-Gov. James De Lancey held a confer- 
ence of peace with the Alohawk and Schaghticoke sachems 
between June 14th and July 8th. The Schaghticokes made 
promises that they would "do as their fathers had done 
before them." Six weeks later on August 24, 1754, five St. 
Regis warriors posted at Fort St. Frederic, true to their 
promise to Governor Crosby in 1733, arrived at St. Croix 
and warned the dominie of the Tioshoke mission chapel that 

'Anna McVicar Grant, Memoirs of an American Lady, 1808. 



Fort Schaghticokc and Knickerbacker's Colony 103 

eight hundred French and St. Francis warriors were headed 
for Dutch and EngHsh Hoosac. 

At that time the last of the Schaghticokes consisted of 
about sixty members, including warriors, squaws, and chil- 






A hand-shaved dap-board from Col. Johannes Groesbeck Mansion, riddled 
with bullet-holes from the French longues Carabines — long rifles — fired from the 
north bank of the Iloosac in 1756, during the French and Indian War. 

dren, residing on the north bank of the Hoosac. They be- 
gan a pow-wow^ on August 24, 1754, so protracted and singu- 
lar as to attract the notice and excite the wonder of Fort 
Schaghticoke garrison and Knickerbacker's Dutch Colony. 
The warriors for four consecutive days engaged in songs and 
the Kinte-kaye (Devil-dance to Great Hobbamocko) ; and on 
the morning of the 29th, after the massacre and burning of 

' N. Y. Hist. Mag., June, 1870. 



104 



The Hoosac Valley 



Dutch Hoosac hamlets, it was discovered that their huts 
were tenantless. A whiteman residing on cne borders of 
Schaghticoke village reported that during the whole night 




Boulder marking the grave of Col. Johanyies Knickerbocker, ist, in the 
Schaghticokes' Witenagemot Burial- field, known to-day as the Knickcrbackcr 
Cemetery. Colonel Knickerbocker died in iy4Q, and his father, Herman J ansen 
Knickerbocker, known as "Grandfather Knickerbacker," died in 1721, and his 
grave is marked by a rough botdder, a few feet west of Colonel Knickerbocker' s 
grave. It is undoubtedly the oldest marked grave in the Hoosac Valley. 

of August 28th, he overheard Indians running single file at 
top speed past his cabin door. 

On October 8, 1754, Lieut. -Governor De Lanccy reported 
to the Lords of Trade that a party of St. Francis warriors 
from the village Becancour on the river St. Francis, Canada, 
had made a fatal incursion at Dutch Hoosac. Under cover 
of darkness, during a pouring thunder storm, a hundred war- 
riors visited their Schaghticoke kindred, who joined them as 



Fort Schaghticoke and Knickerbacker's Colony 105 

willing attendants, and marched to St. Regis and St. Francis 
Indian villages. 

Fort Schaghticoke and several of the neighboring man- 
sions were doubly fortified during the summer of 1756. 
Wouter Groesbeck's homestead near the present junction 
of the Tomhannac Creek with the Hoosac, stood within a 
stone's throw of the north bank of the Hoosac and it became 
a target for bullets from the Canadians and St. Francis 
longiies Carabines. The house was repaired by Col. Johannes 
Groesbeck in 1846, who preserved an old hand-shaved clap- 
board, twelve feet long by fourteen inches w^ide, pierced by 
eighteen bullet holes. He emblazoned on one side of the 
board in red letters : the effects of the frenxh war the 
YEAR 1 756. And on the opposite side : 90 years old. The 
Groesbeck Mansion was torn down a few years ago, and 
the board is now stored beneath the southern eaves in the 
attic of the Knickerbacker Alansion. 

Col. Johannes Knickerbacker, 1st, died in 1749, at th^ age 
of seventy years, and his grave is marked by a rough blue 
boulder in the Schaghticokes' Witenagemot burial-field. 
He left six children: three sons — Herman, Johannes, 2d, and 
Wouter; three daughters — Elizabeth, Cornelia, and Helena. 
Herman and Wouter located in Alban}^, and Johannes, 2d, 
bom in 1723, inherited the Knickerbacker Mansion; Eliza- 
beth married Sybrant Quackenbosch ; Cornelia married 
Teunis Van Vechten, son of Garret Tunisson-Van Vechten, 
and Helena died unmarried. Johannes Knickerbacker, 2d, 
was like his father commissioned colonel of the Schaghticoke 
militia connected with Fort Schaghticoke, and led in various 
expeditions against the hostile Indians during the French 
and Indian War. He was attached to Lord Howe's staff 
during the Briton's attack upon the French Fort Carillon 
at Ticonderoga in 1758, when Lord How^e was slain. 

After the departure of the last of the Schaghticokes from 



i^^t> The Hoos.K- Willcv 

lloosac WUley on Aui::iist 28, 1754. Q^eon Esther, a lineal de- 
seendant of Soquon or Alaquon, made annual pilgrimages 
witli her waniors and maidens of St. Regis to the "Vale'^of 
Peaa\" They daneed beneath their Witenagemot Oak by 
tlie light of the moon and seattered sacriiieial tokens in the 
Sehaghtieokes' burial-field ^Yest of the Couneil Trtv, and 
in the lloosaes' Tawasentha (vale oi the manv dead) in the 
field south of Hobbamoeko's Chimney. The latter plac^ 
was known to the ehildren of a eentury ago. The late 
venerable William Banker of East Sehaghtiwke, as a lad, 
joined by the village sehoolmaster and his pupils, construc- 
ted a n^t^e ladder about 70 feet in height and climbed to the 
top of the limestone-breccia obelisk. The>- reported that 
sulphurous fumes issued from the aperture of the chimney. 
It is cN-ident that at some remote period the "Fallen-hill" 
was a Mackimoodus (place of noises) . As such it was chosen 
as the sacrificial slirine for pow-iirnvs to the God of Thunder. 
The De\^rs Kitchen is located in a deep hollow above the 
Fallen-hill north of the obelisk, and a typical sand-dune of 
the mterior is located about the Drader-bach— the Dutch 
designation for the third hill east of the "Vale of Peace." 
The sand is slowly mo\4ng eastward over Schaghticoke 
Plams. The Evil Spirit of nature has buried a grvne of 
trees, and the vegetation about the place is dwarfed, peculiar 
to sand-dunes. The Hoosacs recognized the natural phe- 
nomena of the Fiend of Calamity about the regnon. 

The last burial in the Hoosacs' Tawasentha is believed 
to have taken place soon after Uncus, the last royal sachem 
of Great Inami, was slain in 1757 by Mague. the red Huron 
chiettam. near CHieen Esther's St. Reg^s lodge on the lower 
Champlam. Uncus was temporarilv buried near St. Regis, 
according to Cooper's Last of the Mohicans, and later borne 
to the iMamtoulin burial-field of his fathers. His tumulus 
was discernible in the centre of the Tawasentha field as late 



Fort Schaghticoke and Knickerbackcr's Colony 107 

as 1875 and was locally known as the "Indian-cellar." The 
mound was ploughed down by the late William P. Button, 
superintendent of Knickerbacker Manor, who sowed the 
field to wheat. He reported unearthing many warriors' 
bones and "weapons of rest" in the furrows. 

During 1900, William Dyer, superintendent of Knicker- 
backer Manor, enclosed the Schaghticokes' burial-field, now 
known as the Knickerbacker Cemetery, with a wall and 
iron fence. After the passing of the present proprietor, 
William H. Knickerbacker of Bloodville Mansion at Ballston 
Spa, N. Y., the key of the Schaghticoke-Knickerbacker 
Cemetery will be turned over to the Mayor and Council of 
the City of Albany, who will guard the historic mingled 
dust of the Savage and > Christian for generations to 
come. 

Mawwehu's New vSchaghticoke ' settlement was later incor- 
porated by the English of Connecticut as the town of Kent. 
At the opening of the nineteenth century the mixed Pequots 
had dwindled down to thirty-five members, who cultivated 
only six acres of their vSchaghticoke Alountain Reservation, 
then containing fifteen hundred acres. During 1906, the 
last fifteen Pequot-Negro half-breeds resided in six little 
one-story brown cabins and two stores. To-day the Schagh- 
ticoke Mountain Reservation of three hundred acres and its 
buildings is valued at $3500. The whole fund of the Pe- 
fiuot Colony is estimated at about $5500 and is controlled 
by a superintendent, who looks after the welfare of the tribe. 
The venerable Queen Vinie had a white mother. She is a 
great grand-daughter of the sachem Mawwehu and resides 
with her half-sister Rachel, a full-blooded Pequot, in a cottage 
near that of Hen Pan, who is proud that in his veins flows 
the unmixed blood of Great Unami. He has emblazoned m 
large red letters on his chimney: "i am o. k." in spite of the 

' C. Burr Todd, In Olde Connecticut, pp. 208-216 



io8 The I loos. k WiUev 

fact that his brother Jim Pan. and his white Avife, atui two 
children share his cottage. 

AkuYwehu's biirial-tield at New Schaghticoke is located 
under a bold clitT of Sehaghtici^ke Mountain, over which the 
Falls of St. Agnes tumble through many a pot-hole to the 
Housatonac River. The Christians ha\e long since forced 
the sons of Great Unami of MOHiiGONi^CK front the ebbing 
rivers of their fathers. To-dav the vanishing warriors 
munnur : 

And fast they follow, as we go 
Toward the setting day, — 
Till they sliall till the laud, and we 
Are driven into the western sea.^ 

» Bryant, .-!« Indian at the Burial-Ptace of his Fathers. 



CHAPTER V 

FORT ST. CROIX AND Till': PATROONS OF FRENCH AND 

DUTCH HOOSAC 

I624-I759 

All beside thy limpid waters. 

All beside thy sands so bright; 
Indian Chiefs and Christian warriors 

Joined in fierce and mortal fight. 

Spanish Ballad in Percy. 

Dutch Boers and French Walloons, 1615-1624 — Fort Crailo and Rensselaer- 
wyck, 1 624-1 663 — Fort St. Croix and Van Ness Colony, 1724 — Tioshoke 
— Nepimore — Falls Quequick — Dutch Hooesac and Kreigger Rock 
Hamlets — Tioshoke Moravian Mission — Dutch Hooesac and German 
Lutheran Church — English Survey of Upper Hoosac Towns, 1 739-1 749 — 
Walloomsac Patent, 1739 — King George's or Shirley's War, 1 744-1 748 — 
General Rigaud's Invasion of Hoosac Valley, 1746 — French and Indian 
War, 1754 — Fall of Quebec and Burning of St. Francis Village of Becan- 
cour, 1759. 

RENSSELAERWYCK, St. Croix, and Hoosac manors 
lie west of the Taconacs in New York. The distant 
blue shoulders of Mount Greylock's brotherhood loom up 
against the southeastern sky, through the Hoosac Pass in 
Massachusetts; and southward, up the narrow defile of the 
Little Hoosac, gleam the "Sugar-loaf mountains" and 
"Johnny-cake hills" of ancient Rensselaerwyck, N. Y. 
Eastward, through the Walloomsac Pass, tov/er the spruce 
domes of the Green Mountains in Vermont. And from the 
west meanders the Nepimore Creek from Rensselaer Hills 
through the pine woods of "Shingle Hollow"; while the 
devious Owl Kill from the north, after following the famous 

war-trail of the picturesque Camhjridge, Valley, joins the 

109 



110 The lloosac Willcy 

lloosac near Eaglo Bridge — twolvo miles below the blending 
of the IKx^saes. 

Several Freneh Walloon families joined the Dnteh Boers 
in 1OJ4. settling on the site of Fort Crailo in Greenbush and 
Fort Half-McXMi below C\>lu->es Falls. Fort Crailo neii:h- 
borhood in i(\>o inehided the \'an Bris, \*an Cuyler, \'an 
IVnburgh, \'an Hegan. \'an IVr Heyden, \'an Ness. \'an 
Staats, \'an Sehaiek, WcXMuan. He PeNster. and the Alaessen 
or \'an Burmi families. The latter ran a taveni and his 
grandson, Martin \'an Buren. beeame President of the 
United States in i8^^7. 

Fort Crailo was built sometime between 1630 and 1642. 
Sheriff Albert zen Plank of Fort Orange in u\^7. and Arendt 
Van Corlaer, * a cousin of patroon Kiliaen Wui Rensselaer, 
negotiated, \N-itli the IMahieansae s;iehems, for the Taeonac 
Liike District, twenty-four miles square, on the east bank 
of the Hudson; iuid during IC4J Hendriek Albertzen ran a 
ferry boat between Fort Orange and Fort Crailo neighbor- 
hoods. 

The Patroon of Rensselaerwycl: built cottages, bams, 
mills, tanneries, and breweries, and partly stocked his tenants' 
farms. He required half of all increased stock, fowl, butter, 
cheese, and also a certain number of days of labor to be 
applied in cutting wcx^d, logs, and building roads, for the 
first ten years, until the forests were cleared. After that 
he demanded an annual quit-rent of two bushels of winter 
wheat or com, for every one hundred acres cultivated, 
averaging si 20 to <-\x^ for each fami. The x-ield of wheat 
per busliel was twelve to twenty bushels, according to the 
soil. Rents could be paid in beaver-skins or wampuni at the 
market price, beaver-skins during King William's War being 
valued at about 5i.6ti in coin or York currency. The 
landlord's office was built in 1666. near the comer of Tivoli 

' Coriaer. ;ilso spelled Curler. 



The Patroons of French and Dutch Hoosac iii 

street on the Albany and Troy road. It is considered the 
oldest building within the limits of the city of Albany to- 
day. 

During June, 1642, Arendt Van Corlaer, Commissary- 
General of Fort Orange, then about twenty-two years of 
age, turned his thoughts to marriage. He visited his elder 
brother, Capt. Jacobus Van Corlaer, of Fort Good Hope on 
the Connecticut. It was about this time that the scholarly 
Swede, Jonas Bronck of Bronx Valley, was killed by the 
Wickquaskeek Indians. A letter of Arendt Van Corlaer, 
dated June 16, 1643, to his cousin, Patroon Kiliaen Van 
Rensselaer, says: " I am at present betrothed to the widow of 
the late Jonas Bronck. May the Good God vouchsafe and 
bless me in my undertaking." The following season Arendt 
Van Corlaer, 2d, was bom at Fort Orange, and Captain Van 
Corlaer and his son were destined to found Fort Schonowe 
Colony on the site of Schenectady in 1661. 

The Indian massacre of Esopus, now Kingston, took 
place in June, 1663, and the tenantry of the west bank of the 
Hudson sought refuge at Fort Crailo on Patroon Van Rens- 
selaer's farm at Greenbush. The night watch included: 
Capt. Cornelius Van Ness and his three sons, Hendrick, 
Garret, and Jan Van Ness; Corp. William Bout, Cornelius 
Stephenson, Pieter Miillen (MeUen), Adams Dingermans, 
Jan Juriaensen, Jacobus Jansen, Tyman Hendricksen, Jan 
Oothout, Hendrick Maessen (Van Buren), Garret Tunisson 
(Van Vechten), Hans Jacobsen, Hendrick Williamson, and 
Claes Claessen, Hendrick Van Ness and Garret Tunis, on 
(Van Vechten) twenty-five years later became two of the 
proprietors of the Hoosac Patent in central Hoosac. 

In February, 1666, during the Alohawk and Hoosac War, 
Gov. Samuel Courcelle of New France lead a party of six hun- 
dred French and Algonquin warriors to harass the Mohawks 
about Fort Schonowe. Several of the Canadians were cap- 



112 The Hoosac Valley 

tured by the Mohawks, and Capt. Arendt Van Corlaer ran- 
somed and returned them to the defeated Courcelle. The 
grateful Governor invited Van Corlaer to visit Canada, and 
while on his journey, he was accidentally drowTied, in 1667, 
near Fort Cassin, north of the junction of Otter Creek 
with Lake Champlain. The Peton-hoque waters were 
known for a centur}^ thereafter as Lake Corlaer, in memory 
of "Brother Corlaer," the Indians' Friend. 

At the time Gov. Thomas Dongan granted Hoosac Patent ' 
on June 2, 1688, to Maria Van Rensselaer and Hendrick Van 
Ness of Albany, Garret Tunisson (\^an Vechten) of Catskill, 
and Jacobus Van Cortlandt of New York City, Arendt Van 
Corlaer, 2d, was a man forty-five years of age. His son, 
Arendt Van Corlaer, 3d, was bom in 1690, during the peri- 
lous year following the Massacre of Schenectady and the 
opening of King William's War. He inherited a portion of 
the Great Lot 10 of Hoosac Patent; and in 1709 at the age 
of nineteen years settled at St. Croix, in company with the 
fur-trader Adam Vrooman, son of Bartle Vrooman of Old 
Saratoga. 

]\leanwhile Garret Cornelius Van Ness, eldest son of 
Hendrick Van Ness, one of the proprietors of Hoosac Patent, 
was bom December 2, 1702. He inherited St. Croix manor, 
two miles square, on the northeast bank of the Hoosac, lying 
between the junctions of the Owl Kill and the Walloomsac. 
At the age of twenty-two, in 1724, he married Sarah Van 
Valkenburgh of Albany. He erected a saw-mill and grist- 
mill on the present site of St. Croix Mills. - near the junction 
of Little \Miite Creek w^th the Walloomsac, a mile east of the 
site of Hoosac Junction, and built his manorial mansion on 
the terrace twenty rods above the Walloomsac ford. ^ About 
the same time the Dutch stockade, on the site of the Jesuits' 

' See illustration, Chapter III. = See illustration. Chapter XVII. 

s See illustration, Preface. 




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114 The Hoosac Valley 

Fort St. Croix, was built on the high bkiff a few rods east of 
Van Ness Mansion. 

The Dutch Fort St. Croix, erected in I724,was undoubtedly 
similar to all New York border stockades and contained 
mounted cannon similar to those of Fort Orange and Fort 
Crailo, so adjusted as to hurl small boulders whenever can- 
non balls were scarce. A dozen rusty balls, however, have 
been unearthed on St. Croix terrace by the present pro- 
prietor of Van Ness homestead, Nicholas Hathaway, durini:: 
the last ten years. The field is strewn with thousands of 
small boulders, many of which were undoubtedly hurled 
against the enemy between 1540 and 1777. 

The scalping forays of the French, headed by Kryn's and 
Grey-Lock's "Praying warriors" of St. Frangois and St. 
Regis, during the Jesuits' War between 1689 ^^^ Father 
Rale's death in 1724, led through the Hoosac Pass to 
Deerfield and Northfield villages of the English; as did 
the subsequent invasions of the French and St. Francis 
warriors diuing King George's War, and the later French 
and Indian War. A French writer recorded that within 
a certain definite period of short duration, twenty-seven 
detachments of St. Francis warriors headed by Jesuit chap- 
lains, made incursions into the country settled by the 
Dutch and English Protestants. 

St. Croix, Dutch Hooesac, and Kreigger neighborhoods* j 
located in the Hoosac Pass of the Taconacs between the 
junctions of the Owl Kill and Cohoha or Wash-Tub Brook 
with the Hoosac at Kreigger Rocks, suffered more from those 
avenging forays of King Philip's fugitive warriors than did 
Knickerbacker's Dutch colony on the lower Hoosac, or 
Williams's English proprieties on the upper Hoosac. 

The Hoosac Patent, granted in 1688, covered all the fertile 
meadow-land two miles in width on both banks of the 
Hoosac, between the Fallen-hill in Old Schaghticoke, and 



The Patroons of French and Dutch Hoosac 1 15 

the north Hne of Rensselaerwyck, near the junction of the 
Little Hoosac with the Big Hoosac. 

The founders of the Fort St. Croix in 1724 included: 
Patroon Garret Cornelius Van Ness, Arendt Van Corlaer, 
3d, Adam Vrooman, Pitt Van Hogleboom, George Nicolls, a 
descendant of Col. Richard Nicolls of the British war- 
fleet of 1664; Johannes De Ruyter, a descendant of Genera] 
De Ruyter of the Battle of Solebay; Juria Kreigger, a de- 
scendant of Col. William Kj-eigger of Governor Stuyvesant's 
Fort Amsterdam militia in 1664; Jan Oothout, a grandson 
of Hans Reinier Oothout of Capt. Jacobus Van Corlaer's 
Fort Good Hope garrison on the Connecticut ; Jacob Onder- 
kirk, a grandson of Oldert Onderkirk of Fort Half-Moon; 
Daniel and Albertus Brodt (Bratt), Rykert Borie fBovie), 
Jacob and Abram Fort, Johannes Van Denbiu-gh, Johannes 
De Fonda, Jan Huyck, David and Stephen Van Rensselaer, 
Robert Leake (Lake), William Nicholas, Andrew Norwood, 
George Searles, Pieter Sur Dam, and many another "Rip 
Van Winkle" of the "Bully Boys" of Helderberg, whose 
gravestones have long since crumbled to dust and whose 
names have been forgotten. The only records of the St. 
Croix forefathers are found to-day on the Manitoti aseniah, 
(Spirit-stones) marking the site of the Tioshoke Church- 
yard, northwest of Fort St. Croix terrace. 

According to tradition, there was a quaint Dutch village 
about the site of the Tioshoke Church between 1724 and 
1 746. The leases of Patroon Van Ness to his tenants reveal 
that the crossroads of his manor connected with the "Great 
Road," now known as Cambridge Turnpike, leading between 
the junction of the Owl Kill to the St. Croix Mills, at the 
junction of the Little White Creek with the Walloomsac. 

On either side the riv^er lie 
Long fields of barley and of rye. 



Ii6 



The Hoosac Valley 



The first Tioshoke Church was undoubtedly founded by 
Count Zinzendorf's Moravian missionaries from Germany 
and Bohemia, between 1741 and 1754. After the close of 




The St. Croix Burial-field located about the site of the Tioshoke Mission 
Chapel of Colonial days. The tombstones in the foreground mark the grave 
of Arendt Van Corlaer, jd, who died in 1797 at the age of 107 years. 

The Hoosacs recognized the rude slabs of marble as Manitou-aseniah, 
Spirit-stones, and carved their Wakon-bird stones from quartzite or marble, which 
their priests used in their own burial ceremony. 

Heroes " survive storms and the spears of their foes, and performe a few 
heroic deeds, and then: 

'Mounds will answer questions of them, 
For many future years.' 

Thoreau, The Heroes' Cairn. 

the French and Indian War the dominie's parsonage and Dr. 
Hugh Richey's dwelling stood near the site of the Tioshoke 
Church-yard, now containing the tombstone marking the 
grave of Arendt Van Corlaer, 3d,' who died in 1797, at the 

' The name Corlaer is spelled Curler on his gravestone. He was of French 
Walloon origin. 



The Patroons of French and Dutch Hoosac 117 

age of 107. In the hamlet was Patroon Van Ness's Mansion ; 
and about the site of his St. Croix Mills stood a number of 
dwellings for tenants and slaves, a schoolhouse, ashery, 
store, blacksmithy, wagonshop, and tannery, before General 
Rigaud's invasion, during King George's War in 1746. 

Simultaneous with the founding of Fort St. Croix Colony 
in 1724, tenantry from Fort Half-Moon and Fort Schaghti- 
coke colonies pushed up the three branches of the Wanepi- 
moseck Creek, leading toward Rensselaer's Plateau from 
Hart's Falls, Valley Falls, and Eagle Bridge. Philip Van 
Ness, a cousin of Garret Cornelius Van Ness, founded the 
Tioshoke Colony on the north bank of the Hoosac, below the 
junction of the Owl Kill, about 1724, and later built a saw- 
mill and grist-mill. He was joined by Wouter Van Vechten, 
Lewis Van Woerdt, Johannes Quakenbosch, Nicholas Groes- 
beck, and Pieter and Ludovicus Viele, sons of Yocob Viele 
of the Knickerbacker Colony. Johannes Van Buskirk, 
Augustus Van Cortlandt, and Augustus Van Home later 
located on the south bank of the Hoosac, opposite Philip 
Van Ness's Tioshoke hamlet, and founded Buskirk Bridge 
hamlet. Van Cortlandt and Van Home, as heirs of patroon 
Jacobus Van Cortlandt of New York City, inherited the Great 
Lots of Hoosac Patent, including the Falls Quequick forests. 

About two years after Fort St. Croix was built, the fur- 
trader, Jan Gothout, cleared a lot on the east bank of Falls 
Quequick and built the first log house within the present 
limits of Hoosac Falls; the site was subsequently occupied 
by the Henry Barnhart and Samuel Bowen saw-mill, in 
1754. Pitt Van Hogleboom, son of the fur- trader, Bart Van 
Hogleboom, from the junction of Bart's Kill — Batten Kill, — 
also cleared a lot two miles above Falls Quequick and built 
a log house, which was subsequently owned by Nicholas 
Brown. Jacob Onderkirk, son of Cornelius Onderkirk of 
Fort Half-Moon, cleared a large farm a few years later on the 



ii8 The Hoosac Valley 

west bank of Hoosac, two miles above Falls Quequick; and 
other homesteaders forced their way up the Nepimore, or 
Nipmuth Creek, to "Shingle Hollow," where they made pine 
shingles, tar, and turpentine. 

Eight or ten greedy burghers, also, of Rensselaerwyck, 
headed by Juria Kreigger, pushed up the Hoosac Pass about 
1724 and "squatted" on the Cohoha cornfields, near the 
junction of Wash-Tub Brook with the Hoosac, about Kreig- 
ger's Rocks and at Weeping Rocks, nearly four miles east 
of Twenty-Mile Line of New York, on the New Hampshire 
Grants. No contemporary records exist of those settlements, 
although after Pownal was chartered to the English in 1760, 
the Dutch land claimants of several farms included the 
names of Juria Kreigger, Petrus Voseburgh (Vose), Bastian 
Van Deel (Diel), Franz Burns and his brother, Pitt Hogle 
(Van Hogleboom), Henry Young, Schorel Marters Watson, 
Mr. Devot, Long Andries, John Spencer; and later the Van 
Arnam, Van Norman, Anderson, Fischer, and Westing- 
house families. 

A partial division of the Great Lots of the eastern end of 
Hoosac Patent took place, May 15, 1732. The heirs of 
Maria Van Rensselaer, Hendrick Van Ness, Garret Tunis- 
son-Van Vechten, and Jacobus Van Cortlandt drew their 
lots. Catherine Van Vechten, a granddaughter of Garret 
Tunisson-Van Vechten and Col. Johannes Knickerbacker, 
1st, of Old Schaghticoke, drew several shares. In 1735, 
she married Barnardus Bratt, or Brodt, who purchased the 
rights of several other Van Vechten heirs; his great wealth 
and assumption of manorial rights distinguished him locally 
as the "Patroon of Hoosac." He built his manorial man- 
sion, huge Dutch-roofed barns, mills, and tannery in 1736 
about the present site of Petersburgh Junction Station. ^ The 
corn-mill stood on the Patroon's Brook, which flows through a 

* Located in Hoosac, N. Y. 



The Patroons of French and Dutch Hoosac 119 

ravine north of the site of the present Gardner Mansion and 
which joins the Hoosac a mile below Petersburgh Junction. 
The broken mill-stone still lies bleaching on the bank of 
the brook. After the advent of the w^ealthy "Patroon of 
Hoosac," waving fields of grain and barracks of straw 
loomed up on either bank of the devious Hoosac, 

That clothe the wold and meet the sky; 
And through the fields the road runs by. 

The historic hamlet of "Dutch Hooesac," burned by Gen- 
eral Rigaud dining King George's War in August, 1746, lay 
partly on Bratt's Big Hoosac manor and partly on Van 
Rensselaer's Little Hoosac manor. The Dutch meeting- 
house, schoolhouse, blacksmith-shop, and store, stood about 
the junction of the Hoosac and Little Hoosac roads on the 
site of Petersburgh Four Comers. A brisk trade in hides, 
tallow, furs, beer, rum, floiu", provisions, and clothing was 
carried on between the tenantry of the Dutch patroons of 
Hoosac, Rensselaerwyck, St. Croix, and Fort Massachusetts. 

Among the first homesteaders of Rensselaerwyck and 
Hoosac manors may be named: Johannes De Ruyter, Hen- 
drick Letcher, Petrus and Hans Bachus, Johannes George 
Brimmer, and Jacob Best. In the De Fonda neighbor- 
hood east of Bratt's Mansion at the base of De Fonda Hill 
resided the Van Derricks, Johannes De Fonda, Knott, 
Robert and Jan Huyck families. The latter descended from 
Dominie Jan Huyck, who first located at New Amsterdam 
in 1626. Descendants of Jan Huyck are found in Herkimer, 
N. Y., and the De Fondas founded Fonda in the Mohawk 
Valley. 

The English missionaries, Jonathan Sergeant, Timothy 
Woodbridge, and Samuel Hopkins in 1732 located at Skate- 
cook, near the junction of Green River w4th the Housatonac, 
on the site of Sheflfield, Mass. Ephraim Williams, Sr., 



I-?0 'J-hr IKhVs.u- WilKy 

josiah joiios. josoph WooJlM-iJi^v. aiul ICphraiiu Uvown 
KuMirii alnnil Km;; AopuMi's MiMmniont Mountain villai;i\ 
and inaMporaU\l \Uc lown. SuvklM-iJ).;o. in i ;^^o. l^phraini 
\\ illiains. Sr.. was also roinniissioncil to la\ out one m- nunv 
townships on tlio ni>prr lloosa.> Jufin.i; Ma\ . i ;^;o, when he 
disoovoiTvl tlu^ Oulch buri;IuM-s of Urnssolaorwx ck looati\l 
lUMi- KailK\snako pM-ook on tho borJor of Willianistown. 
Mass. The ShrritT of Rrnssckionv\ ok aiul tlio Soliai;htici>ko 
saoluMUs aJvanoovl \o ihc lu\ulwatiM-s oi [ho lloosao and 
routod tlio luii^lish survox ors. 

l.iont.-r.ov. luHMi^o C'kuko oi Albany on Jiuio 5. 1 7 ;o. 
advertised all "the vaoant land oast oi lloiv^ao l\iteiVt." 
for siMtlonuMit. Tho Waliootnsac Patent eoveriui; twelve 
thousanvl aeri\s oi nieadowdand on the banks oi the Wal- 
loon Treek was p-anted to six proprietors ineludin.i;: Janies 
iV l.aneey. C'harles Williams. ICdward C\^llins. T.erar- 
dus vSiuNvesant. Stephen \"an Rensselaer, and iMvderiek 
Morris of Albany. The traet be>;an two miles east of the 
lloosae River and extended eastward up the Walloomsae to 
Haviland's Prook. known to-day as Paran C^vek. in North 

PHMUUMi^tOn. \"t. 

C'ov. Jonathan P^eleher oi P>oston. after the ICnj^lish were 
routed from the upper 1 loosao.iu June, i r;,o. addivssed several 
letters to Lieut. -r.ov. r.eoroe Clarke, requesting; a Mmu.il 
Board v>f Tv^mmissioners to deeide upon the Twenty-Milo 
l.me between New York aiui Mass;ieluisotts. in v>rder to 
bettor seen re the New ICngland borvlers. "whereuixMi some 
tew people have alivady j;ot and iniuibit." The letters were 
iKiioiwi and Riehard lla-:en was eni^aged to survey and 
establish the pivsenl northern line oi Massaehusotts in 
April. 1 7.}!. and Port Massachusetts was built during the 
sunmier of 17.45. 

Commissary Majv>r Israel Williams ot Massaehusotts bor- 
der forts direeted Lieut. John Catlin. .\i. to negotiate with the 



The Poltroons of French and Dutch Hoosac 121 

patroons of Dutch Hoosac for supplies. On August 5, 1745,^ 
both Cajit. Garret Cornelius Van Ness and Barnardus Bratt 
visited Fort Massachusetts, and Captain Van Ness agreed 
to supply flour delivered at the Van Derrick Mansion in 
] )iit eh J looesac at 28 per skipel, in exchange for New England 
rum, hides, and tallow at market price shipped to his son, 
Cornelius Van Ness, a wholesale merchant in New York City. 

Ambuscades of savages began to lurk throughout Hoosac 
Valley after the English commenced to l)uild Fort Massa- 
chusetts. Nicholas Bovie of Kreigger neighborhood, now 
North Pownal, Vt., was scalped and left for dead, although 
he survived many years and was known as "Scalped Dick." 
His uncle, Petrus Bovie, while a garrison soldier at Fort 
Massachusetts, was killed during October, 1747, and Pitt Van 
Hogleboom and his youngest son were later slain. The 
latter, according to his mother, was buried on the bank of the 
Hoosac in the Cohoha cornfield. ^ The late Alonzo Whipple, 
oiK' of the Pownal citizens, located his disinterred grave 
nu'iny years ago after a freshet, and recovered his brass- 
l)()wled pipe, which is now in the possession of V. D. S. 
Merrill of Bennington, Vt. 

In June, 1746, while Franz Bums and his brother were 
hoeing in Cohoha cornfield, they saw their barn on fire. On 
nearing their cottage door they beheld a stack of French 
rides and in their fright the brothers separated. One 
ascended the trail over the Kreigger Rocks and hastened up 
the valley to Fort Massachusetts, and the other turned up the 
river and met an ambuscade of warriors, who gave chase for 
his scalp. He plunged into the river and hid beneath piles 
of driftwood until the Indians retreated down the valley. 
The next morning he rose from his hiding-place and pro- 
ceeded to the English fort, where to his surprise he found his 
brother. 

' Note 2, at end of volume. ^ See illustration, Chapter VI., p. 137. 



122 The Hoosac Valley 

Two months later General Rigaud invaded Hoosac Valley 
with a vast army of French and St. Francis Indians, They 
encamped on the Bums brothers, Cohoha cornfield, west 
of Kreigger Rocks, and sent scouts to observe Fort Massa- 
chusetts. Captain Van Ness and Bamardus Bratt did not 
warn the English commander of an advancing enemy, hoping 
thereby to escape molestation, as during former invasions of 
the Canadas. Rigaud's returning army and English captives 
encamped on the Van Derrick meadow, near Dutch Hooesac. 
General Rigaud recorded the loss of Dutch Hooesac to be 
£50,000 York currency and an equal loss at St. Croix. 

Young Cornelius Van Ness in 1750, after his marriage 
with Alida Van Woerdt, a daughter of Capt. Lewis Van 
Woerdt of Tioshoke, returned from New York City to St. 
Croix manor, to reside there with his father. 

The French and Indian War was first announced in central 
Hoosac on May 28, 1754, by a party of French and Indians, 
who encamped at the Bamhartand Bowen, Falls Ouequick 
saw-mills. The Van Ness, Van Corlaer, Van Woerdt, Vroo- 
man, Gothout, Onderkirk, Bratt, Van Derrick, De Ruy- 
ter, Letcher, Bachus, De Fonda, Huyck, Van Dee! (Diel), 
Voseburgh (Vose), Van Hogleboom, and Kreigger families 
made their escape to Fort Massachusetts ahead of the war- 
party. The enemy later burned both St. Croix and Dutch 
Hooesac and marched up the valley. The Dutch burghers 
on their way to Fort Massachusetts sent a warning to the 
English proprietors at West Hoosac hamlet, now Williams- 
town, and Capt. Elisha Chapin assigned them the West 
Hoosac homesteaders' barracks. Upon the arrival of the 
English, therefore, they found their quarters crowded with 
a "Dutch clutter," and several families were forced to 
journey on to their Connecticut homes. This led to a 
bitter military jealousy, and the Connecticut settlers 
built a fort on the Square in West Hoosac, not only 



The Patroons of French and Dutch Hoosac 123 

as a refuge from the French and Indians but from the 
Dutch. 

The loss of the patroons on May 28, 1754, in Dutch Hooesac 
and St. Croix, as reported by Captain Chapin, consisted of 
"Seven dwellings, fourteen barns, and fourteen barracks of 
wheat amounting to £4000 York currency in each hamlet." 

The Brimmer massacre took place two weeks later, on 
June 15th. Johannes George Brimmer and his three sons 
were laboring in their cornfield when an Indian blanket was 
discovered by the elder Brimmer. He signalled to his sons 
to follow him with the team to their dwelling. Jeremiah, 
ithe eldest son, while mounting one of the horses, was killed 
Iby a fatal ball, and immediately four savages rose from their 
iambush. Godfrey and Jonathan Brimmer seized their 
jguns and ran behind a brush-fence, but the warriors soon 

1 

located them. Godfrey fired without effect, and according 
to custom of surrender, dropped the butt of his gun and 
placed his left hand over its muzzle. He then extended his 
right hand to his captor, who seized him by his collar band, 
passed around him three times, and laid his right hand upon 
his head. Another savage seized Jonathan, a lad of sixteen 
years, and performed a similar ceremony, after which the 
party turned down the Hoosac. Jonathan picked up several 
small boulders as he crossed the Walloomsac ford and threw 
'them at his captor, which caused the savage to laugh in 
i admiration at Jonathan's defiance. 

i The Brimmer boys marched up the Owl Kill to St. Johns 
I lodge, where they were welcomed by three hundred Schagh- 
ticoke and St. Francis warriors. The lads were seated in 
the centre of the circle and requested to sing hymns. After 
their third refusal the savages prepared to torture them in 
order to make them sing, but an old Indian hunter, who had 
visited the Brimmer home, arose and prevented the torture, 
and six weeks later they were sold as slaves to French officers. 



124 The Hoosac Valley 

After the Fall of Quebec in 1759, the Brimmer boys escaped 
and were again captured by the British near Fort Ticon- 
deroga. Patroon Stephen Van Rensselaer obtained their 
release and they returned to their parents at Rhinebeck- 
on-the-Hudson. 

A part}^ of thirty soldiers from Fort Albany visited " Dutch 
Hooesac" and buried the body of Jeremiah Brimmer the 
latter part of June, beside the great boulder near the present 
residence of Henry J. Brimmer. The family returned to 
their farm in Hoosac Pass about 1 763 and Jonathan remained 
on the homestead, and Godfrey located on upper Little 
Hoosac. The late Hezekiah Coon and Daniel Brimmer 
remembered the adventurous tales related to them by the 
venerable Jonathan and Godfrey Brimmer. 

Lieut. -Gov. James De Lancey held a conference with the 
Schaghticoke and Mohawk sachems between June 14th 
and July 8th, in 1754, and advised the Albany Assembly 
that it was time that the colonists should exert themselves 
to stop the passage of the French, no less barbarous than 
the Indians, prowHng through the unguarded passes of the 
Hoosac Valley, to scalp and lead British subjects to captivity 
in New France. 

Eight weeks after the Brimmer massacre, St. Croix and 
Dutch Hooesac were totally burned. Two official letters 
of Capt. Elisha Chapin addressed to Col. Israel Williams, 
dated at Fort Massachusetts, picture the deserted hamlets 
of central Hoosac between August 3d and 28th, 1754. 

Fort Massachusetts, 

August 3, 1754. 
Sir: 

Last Sunday morning I sent a scout to Sencoick (St. 

Croix) and they returned this minit. They find where the 

Indians marched off and burned all afore them. They 

think there was about 400 of the enemy. They see a man 



I 



The Patroons of French and Dutch Hoosac 125 

come out of Albany yesterday. The Gent, of Albany was 
very desirous that he should come to the fort and acquamt 
me that there is 44 Indian canoes come out 9 days sense 
and desine for our scattering frontieers in New England. 
From Sir 
Yrs 

to Com 

Elisha Chapin. 

Fort Massachusetts, 

August 25, 1754. 

Sir: 

This day there came a man from the Dutch and informs 
me that 4 days past there came 5 Indians from Crownpint 
and informs them that there is eight hundred Indians desine 
to destroy Hosuck (Hooesac) and oare new town (Williams- 
town) and this fort, and desine to be upon us this night. I 
sent a man right down to Hosuck to hear farther about the 
if!air, but the people was all moved off but 2 or 3 that was 
coming to the fort and they tell him the same account. The 
Indians that brought the account was sent in order to have 
some parsons move from Sencoick (St. Croix) that they had 
regard for, but if they come I hope we are well fixt for them. 

In hast from 
Sr 

Your's etc. 

Command. Elisha Chapin. ' 

During the campaigns of 1755 and 1756 the governors of 
Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York fortified the 
trails leading up the Little Hoosac and Green River to Housa- 
tonac Valley. Col. Israel Williams of Berkshire militia 
submitted plans ^ for the Hoosac Valley defences to Governor 
Shirley on September 12, 1754- He proposed that "two new 
forts" should be built— one on the Square in West Hoosac, 

' Perry, Origins in Williamstown, p. 250. =■ Ibid., pp. 286-291. 



126 The Hoosac Valley 

now Williamstown, to be garrisoned by Connecticut militia; 
and another at St. CroLx, near the junction of the Walloonisac. 
to be garrisoned b}^ New York militia. He considered that 
if those "large openings " were closed and a proper garrison 
and artiller}^ posted at Fort Half-AIoon, Fort Schaghticoke. 
and Fort Massachusetts, the frontier English settlements 
of Deerfield and Stockbridge would be protected. Fort 
Hoosac was built during ^March, 1756, and Fort St. Croix 
about the same time, although there is no contemporary 
record of the latter fort 's construction. Capt. Isaac Wyman 's 
Journal of Operations of Fort Massachusetts' during the earh- 
summer of 1756, under date of June 15th, records that: 
General Winslow sent Alajor Thaxter and one hundred and 
fifty men from Fort Half-AIoon "acrost to our Fort at the 
loar Eand of Alelomscot " ' (Walloomsac) , proving that a forti 
was built there at that time. ' 

During the late summer of 1759, Col. Israel Williams 
rallied his Alassachusetts regiment and reinforced General 
Wolfe's army against the French at Quebec. His troopers, 
marching do\\-n the Hoosac \^alley trail, kept an eye on the 
deserted cornfields of Dutch Hooesac and St. Croix. After 
the Peace of Paris was signed in 1763, hundreds of Congre- 
gationaHsts, Baptists, Quakers, Adventists, Presb3i:erians, 
and Alethodists located on patents in Schaghticoke, Cam- 
bridge, Hoosac, and Rensselaer militar}- districts, where 
their stone walls remain and the old grafted stock survives 
in the orchards to-day. 

' Perry, Origins in Williamstow?!, pp. 278-280. 

' Melomscot refers tx> Mellen's patent, one of first settlers on the Walloomsac 
Tract. It was mentioned by the German ofiScer Glick in 1777. Capt. 
Isaac WjTuan's Journal, kept between May 19 and Juty 10, 1756, came 
into the hands of Col. Israel Williams, successor of Col. John Stoddard's 
Hampshire (Berkshire) County militia, in 174S. It descended to Capt. 
John Williams, a son of Col. Israel Williams, residing in Old Deerfield. 
Gen. E. Hoji;, author of Itidiati Wars, 1824, discovered the Jotirnal, August 
31, 1820. 



CHAPTER VI 

FORT MASSACHUSETTS AND ENGLISH HOOSAC 

I 745-1 746 

In a pleasant glade. 
With mountains round about environed, 
Atid mighty woods, which did the valley shade. 
And like a stately theatre it made, 
Spreading itself into a spacious plain; 
A nd in the midst a little river played. 

Spenser. 

Fort Massachusetts, 1745-1746 — Schaghticoke's Challenge of Hoosac Head- 
waters — Ephraim Williams, Jr. — ^King George's or Shirley's War, 1744- 
1748 — Rigaud De Vaudreuil's Invasion, 1746 — Burning of Fort — March 
of English Captives to Quebec — Return of Redeemed Captives, 1747 — 
Tombs of Chaplain Norton and Sergeant Hawks. 

IN 1745, twenty-one years after Fort St. Croix was built in 
Dutch Hoosac, the EngHsh built Fort Massachusetts 
a mile west of the junction of the Mayoonsac with the Asha- 
waghsac, in the present limits of the First Ward of the City 
of North Adams. Nature set her seal of grandeur upon this 
veritable Thermopylae, and it became a counterpart of the 
glade to which Belphoebe bore the wounded Timias. 

The felling of the first pine trees for the construction of 
Fort Massachusetts opened a clearing sixty rods in extent 
on the ox-bow meadow about the site of the blockhouse. 
The St. Francis Ledge was exposed on the north; Hoosac 
ford on the east; a cornfield on the south extended along 
the river's bank, and on the west stretched an undisturbed 
spruce and hemlock marsh-land four miles to the pine grove 
of River Bend campground, north of the site of Moody 

Bridge in Williamstown. 

127 



128 



The Hoosac Valley 



The blockhouse on the upper Hoosac was modelled after' 
Fort Shirley, and Lieut. John Catlin, 2d, accompanied b> 
several Fort Shirley and Fort Pelham soldiers, came over 
the "Forbidden Hoosac Mountain" during the early summer 




The Perry Elm, marking the site of Fort Massachusetts, built during summer 

of 1745 on the ox-bow meadow at the northern base of Mount Williams 

of the Greylock Range, North Adams, Massachusetts. 

of 1745, and built the fort. The Schaghticokes and their 
St. Regis and St. Francis kindred watched every movement 
and forbade the carpenters to complete the blockhouse until 
they first purchased the "Great Meadow\" Lieutenant 
Catlin, 2d, evidently promised to negotiate for the land, 
but in 1 75 1 the Schaghticoke chieftains complained that: 
"The English were not as good as their word."^ 

' Note 10, at end of volume. 



Fort Massachusetts and English Hoosac 129 

Fort Massachusetts, according to Col, John Stoddard's 
orders, ' was built sixty feet square. The walls were twelve 
feet high, by fourteen inches thick, constructed of pine logs 
hewn down to six x fourteen-inch face, placed upon a stone 
foundation, one log above another. The timbers of the 
comers and side walls were dove-tailed and spiked together 
with dowel-pins of red oak. The fort gate faced northward 




Fort Massachusetts Blockhouse, showing the garrison s barracks and the 

watch-towers on the exposed angles of the Fort for the discharge 

of the sharpshooters' rifles. 



upon St. Francis Ledge, and the barracks were eleven feet 
wide, with sloping "salt-box" roofs, located against the east 
and south walls. The mounts consisted of platforms twelve 
feet square on the northwest and southeast angles of the 
blockhouse walls, upon which were built watch-towers seven 
feet in height, pierced with loop-holes for the discharge of 
rifles. The well with its huge sweep stood in the northeast 
angle of the parade, which was forty-nine by sixty feet in 
extent. 

' Perry, Origins in Williamstown, p. 80. 
9 



I30 The Hoosac Valley 

Two official letters of Lieutenant Catlin,^ dated Fort 
Massachusetts in August, 1745, and addressed to the com- 
missary, Maj. Israel Williams, at Hatfield, prove that he 
had been advised to negotiate with the patroons of Dutch 
Hooesac and St. Croix for garrison supplies. At that time 
it was impossible to haul flour from Capt. Moses Rice's 
Charlemont Mills, fourteen miles eastward, except on horse- 
back over the Hoosac Mountain road. Bamardus Bratt of 
Dutch Hooesac, fourteen miles below Fort Massachusetts, 
and Capt. Garret Cornelius Van Ness of Fort St. Croix, 
ten miles farther down the valley, operated the finest flouring 
mills in the American Colonies. 

In June, 1746, Capt. Ephraim Williams, Jr., removed his I 
headquarters from Fort Shirley to Fort Massachusetts. His j 
first muster-roll between December 10, 1745, and June 9, 1746, ' 
contains forty-two names, not including the Fort Shirley 
reinforcements, who arrived in May, 1746. The Schaghti- 
cokes and St. Francis kindred lurked constantly along the 
river bank during the planting season, and Sergt. John 
Hawks and John Mighills on May 9th, while riding on one 
horse near the fort gate, were attacked by two savages. 
Sergeant Hawks, although wounded, recovered his gun and 
aimed it at the warriors, who begged for quarter and ran 
for the woods. 

The St. Francis chieftain, Cadenaret, with a party of his 
warriors from the village of Becancour, on the river St. 
Francis, lay hidden on the Hoosac's bank, awaiting an oppor- 
tunity to attack the soldiers hoeing in the cornfield June 
2d. Elisha Nims from Fort Shirley was shot and scalped, 
and Gershorm Hawks of Charlemont, a nephew of Sergt. 
John Hawks, was slightly wounded. The other soldiers ran 
for the shelter of the fort, but another gang of savages rose 
from ambuscade between them and the gate and attempted 

' Note 2, at end of volume. ^Ibid., Note 3. 



Fort Massachusetts and English Hoosac 131 

to cut off their retreat. The sharpshooters posted in the 
southeast watch-tower repulsed the enemy, although Benja- 
min Taintor, a Fort Shirley recruit, was captured. 

The savages sullenly retreated down the Hoosac Pass, for 
they had left their beloved chieftain, Cadenaret, slain behind 
them. The English discovered his hastily made tumulus 
later on the river's edge, near the cornfield. Buried with 
him was the long rope with which he intended to lead a string 
of English captives to Quebec. 

During April, 1746, the British Ministry rallied 8200 vol- 
unteer troops from Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hamp- 
shire, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, 
Maryland, and Virginia, in order to besiege the French and 
Indians of New France. Capt. Ephraim Williams, Jr., was 
absent from Fort Massachusetts most of the summer, and 
left the fortification under the command of Sergt. John Hawks. 

After the volunteer troops were organized against Canada, 
it was discovered that Fort Massachusetts' garrison was 
inadequate to make a proper defence of the Hoosac Pass. 
It was doubly afflicted also with an epidemic of bloody-flux 
and it was necessary to send for Dr. Thomas Williams, 
the Chaplain, John Norton, and fourteen Fort Shirley 
soldiers. The relief party arrived at Fort Massachusetts 
Friday, August 15th, and the following morning Sergeant 
Hawks despatched Dr. Williams and fourteen soldiers to 
Fort Deerfield with a letter addressed to Capt. Ephraim 
Williams, Jr., asking for supplies and ammunition. He 
reported that fresh Indian moccasin tracks had been observed 
by the patrolling scout a few miles below the fort. 

Only twenty soldiers, ten of whom were dangerously ill, 
besides Sergeant Hawks and Chaplain Norton, were left 
to defend Fort Massachusetts after the departure of Dr. 
Williams's party. The muster-roll of those ill-fated sentinels 
that defended the Thermopylae of New England for twenty- 



132 



The Hoosac Valley 



seven hours against General Rigaud's army — a thousand 
against ten in the unequal contest, from 9 o'clock on the 
morning of August 19th, until 12 o'clock the following day — 
must ever stand high among the heroic names emblazoned 
on the pages of New England history : 



John Hawks 


Sergeant 


Deerfield 


John Norton 


Chaplain 


Falltown 


John Aldrich 


Sentinel 


Mendon 


Jonathan Bridgeman 




Sunderland 


Nathaniel Eames 




Marlboro 


Phineas Forbush 




Westboro 


Samuel Goodman 




Hadley 


Nathaniel Hitchcock 




Brimfield 


Thomas Knowlton 




Unknown (Son of Thomas 
Knowlton) 


Samuel Lovatt 




Mendon 


John Perry 




Falltown 


Amos Pratt 




Shrewsbury 


Josiah Reed 




Rehoboth 


Joseph Scott 




Hatfield 


Moses Scott 




Falltown 


Stephen Scott 




Sunderland 


Jacob Shepherd 




Westboro 


Benjamin Simonds 




Ware River 


John Smead, Sr. 




Athol 


John Smead, Jr. 




Athol 


Daniel Smead 




Athol 


David Warren 




Marlboro 



> 



Mary Smead, Wife of John Smead, Sr. 

Elihu Smead 
Simon Smead 
Mary Smead 
Captivity Smead 

Born after surrender of Fort, 
Aug. 21, 1746. 
Miriam Scott, Wife of Moses Scott 
Ebenezer Scott 
Moses Scott, Jr. 
Rebecca Perry, Wife of John Perry. ' 



Children of John Smead, 
Sr. 



Children of Moses Scott. 



Perry, Origins in Williamstown, p. 128. 



Fort Massachusetts and English Hoosac 133 

At the time Dr. Williams's party marched to the Hoosac 
ford, General Rigaud's French scouts — Sieurs, Beaubassin, 
and La Force, together with eight Schaghticokes, lay in 
ambush beneath the ferns fringing the trail, less than forty 
rods east of Fort Massachusetts. They could have easily 
thrust their longue Carabines forward and touched the boots 
of the passing soldiers, so near did they lie to the path. 

While the English colonists were rallying troops to lay 
siege against New France during the spring of 1746, the 
' Governor-General of Canada also directed General Rigaud 
i to rally an army of about 1200 French and Indians and seize 
some Dutch or English post in the Mohawks' or Hoosacs' 
valley during August. Rigaud's main army was composed 
of 740 French regulars and Canadians; and Lieutenant 
Demuy's detachment of 470 Indians consisted chiefly of St. 
Francis warriors from Becancour and St. Regis villages 
who challenged the headwaters of the Hoosacs' hunting- 
grounds. A brother of the late Cadenaret, who was slain 
on the bank of the upper Hoosac, June 2d, headed the 
motley band, including Lenapes from Detroit, Sauteurs from 
Mackinaw, Hurons, Pottawatamies, and seventeen fierce 
Mississaugers from Lake Ontario. 

Demuy's detachment of savages advanced ahead as a 
scouting party and encamped near the junction of Poultney 
River with East Bay, north of the site of Whitehall. Gen- 
: eral Rigaud's detachment left Montreal on August 3d, 
and later encamped near the mouth of Otter Creek with 
Lake Champlain above Demuy's Indian encampment. At 
that time it was General Rigaud'f intention to capture Fort 
Schenectady in the Alohawks' valley. 

"The white cunning," wrote Cooper in his Last of the 
Mohicans, "had managed to throw the tribes into great 
confusion, as respects friends and enemies." The Hurons 
and the Mississaugers from Ontario were deadly enemies of 



134 The Hoosac Valley 

the Mohawks and Schaghticokes. The St. Francis war- 
captain foresaw, therefore, that it was necessary to hold a 
council of war with General Rigaud in order to keep peace 
among his mixed tribes. The St. Francis and St. Regis 
warriors were eager to avenge the death of Cadenaret and 
burn the English Fort Massachusetts on the upper Hoosac, 
instead of the Dutch forts in the Mohawk Valley of their 
kindred. 

General Rigaud, observing the eagerness of Lieutenant 
Demuy's savages to devastate Hoosac Valley settlements, 
listened to the St. Francis war-captain, who drew upon the 
floor of the council room a rough map of the Valley of 
Mingling Waters, which he called Skatecook^ — known to 
the French as Kaskekouke. ^ He located Fort Massachu- 
setts on the Hoosac headwaters and said: "My Father, it 
will be easy to take this fort, and make great havoc on the 
lands of the English. Deign to listen to your children and 
follow our advice." General Rigaud accordingly changed 
his plans and invaded the Hoosac Valley. 

The Indians, after the council of war, performed a cere- 
mony of absolution — Kinte-kaye or Devil-dance to Ilobba- 
mocko, the Fiend of Calamity, while chanting Manitou's 
prayer of Wappanachki. The latter was preser\''ed by his- 
torian Nicholas Heckewelder of New Amsterdam, and is 
of local interest, since Cooper in his Last of the Mohicans 
describes Uncus's chant to Manitou: 

O poor me ! 

Who am going out to fight the enemy, 
And know not whether I shall return again, 
To enjoy the embraces of my children 
And rti}'- wife. 

' See Chap. II. on Origins of Skatecook, and Note i at end of volume. 
2 Parkman, "Fort Massachusetts," in Half a Century of Conflict. 




Cohoha Cornfield of Kreigger Rock tieighborJiood in Hoosac Pass above 
junclion of Little Hoosac with Big Hoosac. General Rigaud's French and In- 
dian army encamped in this intervale before the capture of the English Fort 
Massachusetts on August 20, 1746. Kreigger Rock marks the Natural Dam 
of the glacial Lake Bascom, 

135 



136 The Hoosac Valley 

O poor creature! 
Whose life is not in liis own hands, 
Who has no power over his own body, 
But tries to do his duty 
For the welfare of his nation. 

O thou Great Spirit above! 

Take pity on my children 

And my wife! 
Prevent their mourning on my account ! 
Grant that I may be successful in this attempt, 
That I may slay my enemy. 
And bring home the trophies of war 

To my dear family and friends, 

That we may rejoice together. 

O take pity on me ! 
Give me strength and courage to meet my enemy. 
Suffer me to return again to my children, 

To my wife! 

And to my relations ! 
Take pity on me and preserve my life, 
And I will make thee a sacrifice! 

The following morning General Rigaud left the younger 
Demuy and thirty men in command of his fleet of canoes 
near the site of Poultney River bridge, north of Whitehall. 
He marched around the base of Skene Mountain, then a 
portion of Wood Creek hunting-grounds of the sachem Keep- 
erdo, known as Hoosac or Mahican Abraham, who moved 
to the Ohio Valley in 1730. About 1770, Keeperdo's Wood 
Creek Tract was deeded by his kindred, and without his 
consent, to the Tory, Maj. Philip Skene. 

After General Rigaud's army left the Owl Kill trail at 
Tioshoke village, near the present site of Eagle Bridge 
hamlet, his troopers formed into two brigades, headed by 
Sieur de La Volterie on the right bank, and by Sieur de 



Fort Massachusetts and English Hoosacs 137 

vSabrevois on the left bank of the Hoosac. Demuy's savages 
were placed on the front, rear, and flanks of both brigades. 
After marching fourteen miles up the valley, Rigaud's 
army encamped about sunset on Bums's Cohoha cornfield 
near the junction of Wash-Tub Brook with Hoosac River 
in Kreigger neighborhood, now North Pownal, Vt., fourteen 
miles below Fort Massachusetts. 

Early Tuesday morning, August 19th, Beaubassin and 
La Force with their eight Schaghticoke scouts reported to 
General Rigaud's Kreigger Rock encampment little of impor- 
tance, except the departure of Dr. Williams's party for Fort 
Deerfield. Only a solitary sentinel meanwhile was posted 
in the watch-tower, and the absolute quietude about the 
stricken garrison assured Rigaud that Captain Van Ness 
of Fort St. Croix had not sent a friendly warning to the 
English. At that date there was ill feeling between the 
Dutch and English Hoosactonians over the Twenty-Mile 
Line. 

General Rigaud soon roused the St. Francis war-captain 
and addressed his warriors, saying: "My children, the time 
is near when we must get other meat than fresh pork, and 
we will eat it together." "Meat" referred to the ransom 
money paid them by the Governor-General of Canada for 
every English captive delivered at Quebec. After the two 
chaplains said mass for the French and the St. Francis 
warriors, Rigaud formed his army into two brigades and in 
a pouring rain marched along both banks of the river through 
the Pownal interval, for about ten miles, until they halted 
at River Bend campground in Williamstown, Mass., four 
miles below Fort Massachusetts. A council of war was 
held, and it was agreed that General Rigaud's main army 
should encamp in the woods west of the fort, and Lieutenant 
Demuy's savages on the river bank southeast of the block- 
house, and prepare scaling ladders and battering-rams. 



138 The Hoosac Valley 

About 9 o'clock Rigaud's and Demuy's detachments 
surrounded Fort Massachusetts. The savages and Cana- 
dians upon first beholding the watch-towers rushed forward 
"like lions," firing aimlessly. After the first volley from 
the English sharpshooters' guns, the French and Indians 
retired to the shelter of St. Francis Indian Ledge, sixty rods 
north of the fort. Sergeant Hawks, posted in the northwest 
watch-tower, sent a fatal ball from his Queen's Arm flint- 
lock flying to its mark, through the breast of the St. Francis 
war-captain. General Rigaud also advanced within thirty 
rods of the fort with his ensign to unfurl the lilied flag of 
France, and received a painful wound in his arm. Mean- 
while John Aldrich and Jonathan Bridgeman, in the north- 
west watch-tower, received slight wounds in the foot and i 
thigh from the French regulars' guns. 

About 9 o'clock in the evening it became ver>' dark and 
cloudy, and Chaplain Norton sent a volley of buckshot 
whizzing aimlessly against the howling enemy. The whole 
army soon appeared to surround the fort, after which they 
gave three successive, hideous war-whoops. A guard was 
later set about the blockhouse gate, and both Rigaud's and 
Demuy's troops retired to their camps. The savages, how- 
ever, performed their Kinte-kaye {Hobbamocko-dancc) until 
late in the night, and greatly disturbed the sleep of the 
garrison's sick soldiers. 

At sunrise two English sharpshooters were stationed in 
each watch-tower, and the savages opened fire from the corn- 
field on the south, while the French kept up a constant fire 
from St. Francis Ledge on the north. Thomas Knowlton, 
in the northwest tower, was mortally wounded in the head 
about eleven o'clock. An hour later General Rigaud hoisted 
a flag of truce and desired to parley with Sergeant Hawks, 
announcing that he would set a torch to the fort if he did 
not surrender. He gave Hawks two hours in which to 



Fort Massachusetts and English Hoosac 139 

render his decision. The siege of twenty-seven hours had 
exhausted the garrison's ammunition and only four pounds 
of powder and an equal amount of lead remained. Sergeant 
Hawks and Chaplain Norton, for the sake of the sick soldiers, 
deemed it wisest to surrender the fort. 

Chaplain John Norton, who was graduated from Yale in 
1737, was descended from the Norman Constable, Le Seur 
de Norville of the army of William the Conqueror in 1066. 
He said: 

Had we all been in health, or had there been only those 
eight of us that were in health (two having been wounded), 
I believe every man would have willingly stood it out to 
the last. For my part I should; but we heard that if we 
were taken by violence, the sick, the wounded, and the 
women would most, if not all of them, die by the hands of 
the savages; therefore, our ofRcer concluded to surrender 
on the best terms he could make. ^ 

General Rigaud and his officers, therefore, entered Fort 
Massachusetts about two o'clock, and about three o'clock 

I the St. Francis warriors impatiently pulled down the foun- 
dation wall and crawled, one after another, into the centre 
of the parade. Although the French officers forbade them 
to molest Knowlton, who was dying in the watch-tower, 
they rushed forward, seized his body, and conveyed it out- 
side the fort gate. According to Indian custom, they 
scalped their unconscious victim, and severed an arm and 

!i a leg to carry home as trophies of victory. 

General Rigaud's ensign soon hoisted the Fleur-de-lis 

I flag of France on the northwest watch-tower, and the Jesuit 

'' chaplain unfurled the banner of St, Croix (Holy Cross) of 
the Old Roman Church on the southeast watch-tower. 

' Rev. John Norton, Journal of Captivity, 1748. Cited by Perry, Origins in 
• Williamstown, p. 141. 



140 The Hoosac Valley 

Meanwhile the feeble English captives gathered up their | 
belongings, and the blockhouse was turned over to the 
savages to be plundered and burned, amid wild war-whoops. 

The grim shadows cast by IVIount Greylock's ramparts 
fell sadly over the Hoosac Pass, while the clouds of smoke 
rising from the blazing fort ascended and received the last 
rosy glow of the setting sun of August 20, 1746. Nature 
transformed the savage scene of the St. Francis warriors of 
the Cross into a spectacle of glorious beauty, as the evening 
winds breathed over the ruins and fanned the smouldering logs, 
lighting them with fitful flashes of flame. Meanwhile the 
torch-lights in the enemies' camp indicated a general activity, 
posting the English captives under their special guards pre- 
paratory for their sunrise march down the Hoosac Pass. 
Chaplain Norton was permitted to place a Notice^ of the 
surrender of Fort Massachusetts' garrison on the charred post 
of the well-sweep for Dr. Thomas Williams's returning party. 

Rigaud, however, despatched sixty St. Francis and Schagh- 
ticoke warriors over the Hoosac Mountain trail to capture 
Dr. Williams's party. Not meeting them, they advanced to 
Fort Deerfield Meadow, where the "Bars Fight" took place, 
on the 28th of August. Among the slain may be mentioned 
Samuel Allen, Sr., Eleazer Hawks, nephew of Sergt. John 
Hawks, Adonijah Gillet, Constant Bliss, soldiers in Captain 
Holson's militia, and two children of the widow Amsdel. 
Samuel Allen's little son Samuel was captured, while his 
brother Caleb escaped. The Indians were in the act of 
tomahawking their sister Eunice when routed. She recov- 
ered, and according to the Journals of Rev. Benjamin Doo- 
little of Northfield and Deacon Noah Wright of Deerfield, 
the return captive, Samuel Allen, and his brother Caleb, 
and sister Eunice, all resided in Deerfield Valley in 1795. 

Lieutenant Demuy and Chaplain Norton headed the 

' Perry, Origins in Williamstnwn , pp. 42-175. 



Fort Massachusetts and Eno^lish Hoosac 141 



English captives at dawn, August 21st, down Hoosac Road 
four miles, and they rested at River Bend Camp. War- 
whoops often reached Chaplain Norton's ears and he feared 
the worst, but he was full of admiration when he saw the 
wounded John Aldrich approaching, mounted on the back 
of his savage master. Benjamin Simonds and Josiah Read 
were dangerously ill at the time, and the latter died a few 
miles below in the Hoosac Pass of Pownal. 

About sunset. General Rigaud's army encamped on the 
Van Derrick meadow, near the junction of the Little Hoosac 
with the Hoosac in Petersburgh, New York. Mrs. John 
Smead, Mrs. Moses Scott, and Mrs. John Perr>^ and their 
children tarried in the rear. The gallant French officers 
made a seat for Mrs. Smead and bore her safely to the 
shelter of the Van Derrick Mansion, where about ten o'clock 
was bom her infant daughter, christened "Captivity." 
The mother and child were the next morning conveyed ten 
miles on a cot, prepared from poles covered with bear-skins, 
to the Van Ness Mansion, near Fort St. Croix. 

Four fleet horses were secured from the Van Ness stables 
by General Rigaud for his couriers to convey a message to 
the Governor-General, Marquis de la Galissoniere, at Quebec. 
Other horses were caught in the pasture for Benjamin Simonds 
and John Aldrich to ride to East Bay, near the site of White- 
hall. The captives arrived at their destination about two 
o'clock in the afternoon on August 26th and embarked in the 
canoes for Fort St. Frederic, where they tarried until Septem- 
ber 4th. The party arrived at Three Rivers, Canada, 
September 13th, where General Rigaud's officers, Sergeant 
Hawks and Chaplain Norton, were entertained by the 
Governor of New France. The captives landed near the 
junction of the St. Lawrence with the Loretto in Quebec, 
September 15th, and were reviewed by the Governor-General, 
who assigned them to the pestiferous Battery prison-houses. 



142 The Hoosac Valley 

The Fort Massachusetts captives on August 20, 1746, 
numbered thirty souls — twenty-two men, three women, 
and five children. Of these, Thomas Knowlton and Josiah 
Read died, and "Captivity" Smead was bom the next day. 
The twenty-nine EngHsh Hoosac captives, together with 
seventy-six Dutch Hoosac captives, were assigned to the 
prison-pens of Quebec, on September 15th, Most of them 
died during their sad year of captivity. 

Only fourteen of the twenty-nine English unfortunates, 
including four children. Sergeant John Hawks, Chaplain 
John Norton, Stephen Scott, David Warren, John Perry, 
Joseph Scott, John Aldrich, Moses Scott, Benjamin Simonds, 
and John Smead, Sr., returned to their homes. Those cap- 
tives, on July 25, 1747, were placed on board the ship, j 
Vierge-de-Grace (Handsome Virgin), by the Governor of 
Canada, and arrived at Boston on the i6th of August. Col- 
onel Winslow, great grandson of Gov. Edward Winslow of 
Mayflower fame, welcomed Chaplain John Norton. The 
returned captive hastened forward to meet his family at 
Fort Shirley, and arrived soon after the burial of his little 
daughter Anna. Her tombstone was recovered one hundred 
and forty years later from the neglected "God's Acre" of 
Fort Shirley by the late historian. Prof. Arthur Latham 
Perry of Williams, and is now deposited in Perry's Historical 
Collection at Clark Hall, in Williamstown, Mass. 

During 1748, Chaplain Norton accepted the pastorship of 
the Old East Hampton Church in Connecticut. His tomb- 
stone in the burial-field bears the inscription: 

IN MEMORY OF 

The Rev. John Norton 

Pastor of the 3d Church in Chatham 

Who died with Small Pox 

March 24th a.d. 1778 
In the 63d year of his Age. 



Fort Massachusetts and English Hoosac 143 

Sergt. John Hawks, the "Hero of Fort Massachusetts," 
and Lieut. John CatHn, 2d, the builder of Fort Massachu- 
setts, resided later in Old Deerfield. Sergeant Hawks, 
during February, 1748, in company with Lieut. Matthew 
Claesson and Sergt. John Taylor, delivered the French 
captive, Pierre Rambout, to the Governor-General of Canada 
in exchange for Samuel Allen, nephew of Sergeant Hawks, 
captured during the "Bars Fight" at Old Deerfield, in 1746. 
Sergeant Hawks's tombstone in the Old Burial-Field of 
Deerfield bears the inscription: 

IN MEMORY OF COL. JOHN HAWKS 

Who died June 24, 1784 
In the 77th year of his Age. 

The Fort Massachusetts carpenter, John Perry, after his 
return from captivity, petitioned the Massachusetts Legis- 
lature, November 5, 1747' for reimbursement for his log 
house, a mile west of the fort, burned by Rigaud's army, 
during the summer of 1746. He failed to receive compen- 
sation for his losses, however, and later moved to Vermont 
and aided in building Fort Putney, which was modelled 
after Fort Massachusetts. He is believed to have married 
an Indian squaw, and descendants of his still reside in Hoosac 
Pass of Pownal,Vt. 

Benjamin Simonds was left ill in the Quebec Hospital at the 
time the Fort Massachusetts captives returned to Boston. 
He returned later and was the only surviving captive to 
settle in English Hoosac. Among the first captives to die 
in prison may be named: Nathaniel Fames on Nov. 17, 
1746; Miriam, wife of Moses Scott, Dec. nth; Rebecca, 
wife of John Perry, Dec. 23d; Moses Scott, Jr., son of Moses 
Scott, Sr., Feb. 11, 1747; Mary, wife of John Smead, March 

' Perry, Origins in Williamsiown, pp. 189-190. 



144 The Hoosac Valley 

29th; and "Captivity," infant daughter of the Smeads, 
three weeks after her mother. 

The record of the deaths of the Fort Massachusetts 
garrison soldiers and the return of the surviving redeemed 
captives is found in Rev. John Norton's Journal'' and in 
Sergt. John Hawks's Report^ to the General Court of Mas- 
sachusetts in 1749. At the time Fort Massachusetts was 
burned on August 20, 1746, Capt. Ephraim Williams, Jr., was 
recruiting garrison soldiers. His muster-roll-' contains the 
names of the first men who served in the second Fort Massa- 
chusetts, rebuilt on the Hoosac Meadow, ten months later, 
on June i, 1747. 

' Perry, Origins in Williamstown , pp. 179-185. 

* See Note 4, at end o' volume. 
3 See Note 5, at end of volume. 



CHAPTER VII 

EPHRAIM WILLIAMS AND THE BATTLE OF LAKE GEORGE 

I 747-1 755 

The deeds he did, the fields he won. 
The freedom he restored. 

Sir Edward Shepherd Creasy, Victory of 
Arminius over Varus's Roman Legions, a.d. p. 

jFort Massachusetts Rebuilt — Col. Ephraim Williams's Will — Battle of Lake 
George — Death of Colonel Williams — Tomb and Monuments — General 
Dieskau's St. Francis Legions. 

THE Williams family of Old Berkshire were of Welsh 
origin and were descended from Robert Williams of 
Norwich, England, who settled at Roxbury, Mass., in 1638, 
He was "the common ancestor of the divines, civilians, and 
warriors of this name, who have honored the country of 
their birth."' 

Ephraim Williams, Jr., and his brother, Thomas Wil- 
liams, were sons of Ephraim Williams, St., and his second 
wife, Elizabeth Jackson Williams, and were born at Newton, 
March 7, 17 14, and April i, 171 8, respectively. The former, 
during early life, visited England, Spain, and Holland, and 
the latter graduated from Yale in 1742 and became a sur- 
geon in Old Deerfield. Ephraim Williams, Jr., was a large 
and commanding person, and he acquired a general know- 
ledge of the world. President Fitch of Williams College in 

'Perry, Origins in Williamstown, pp. 215-371. 
" 145 



146 The Hoosac Valley 

1802 wrote:' that "he often lamented his want of a Hberal 
education." His obliging deportment and generosity en 
deared him to all classes of men, and his address procured 
him a greater influence at the General Court of Boston, 
during his command of the cordon of the border forts, than 
any other man perhaps enjoyed during Shirley's War in 
New England. He won the esteem of Governor Shirley 
and met at several military councils with George Washing- 
ton, Benjamin Franklin and William Johnson. 

It was vaguely hinted that Ephraim Williams, Jr., contem- 
plated marriage with his cousin, Elizabeth, daughter of Maj. 
Israel Williams of Hatfield; although for unknown reasons 
he changed his plans before making his Will^ in Albany 
previous to his march to Lake George in 1755. 

Ephraim Williams, Jr., was thirty-three years of age at the 
time Fort Massachusetts was rebuilt in 1747. Governor 
Shirley, April 10, 1747, directed that a more commodious 
blockhouse be erected on the Hoosac Meadow for a garrison 
of thirty soldiers and extra reinforcements. Three 4-pounder 
guns were shipped by way of Hudson River to Van Der 
Heyden ferry, on the site of Troy, and mounted later upon 
the watch-towers of the fort. 

Col. William Williams of Pittsfield, in company with Maj. 
Ephraim Williams, Sr., of Stockbridge, was placed in 
command of the carpenters, and Maj. Israel Williams, com- 
missary-general of the cordon of border forts. Maj. Israel 
Williams and Col. William Williams were nephews of Col. 
John Stoddard, then commander of the Hampshire (Berk- 
shire) County militia. Colonel Stoddard advised Governor 
Shirley to station one hundred soldiers at Fort Massachu- 
setts. Part of the men patrolled the trails northward to 

'President Fitch's " Sketch of Life of Col. Ephraim Williams," Mass. Hist. 
Soc, via. 

' Perry, Origins in Williamstown, pp. 479-483. 



The Battle of Lake George 147 

Lake Champlain, southward to Pontoosac, and eastward 
to Fort Dummer on the Connecticut. 

During May, 1747, Capt. Ephraim WilHams, Jr., joined 
by Maj. Israel WilHams and one hundred soldiers, guarded 
the passage of the artillery from Van Der Hcyden ferry and 
the supplies sent from Albany in huge Dutch vans up the 
Hoosac Road, All went merrily until May 25th, when the 
vanguards arrived at John Perry's meadow, a mile below 
Fort Massachusetts. Here they were attacked by a party of 
French and St, Francis warriors; part of the enemy engaged 
the fort carpenters and the guards, while the rest blocked 
the road in order to prevent the arrival of the Dutch vans 
of provision and cannon. The hot fire of the fort guards on 
the enemy's rear and the repulsing fire of the vanguards 
on the enemy's front soon drove them to the Indian Ledge, 
and the stores arrived safely with the loss of only one Stock- 
bridge Indian. 

The exterior of the blockhouse' was finished June i, 1747, 
and according to historian Perry was about one hundred and 
twenty-five feet square. The barracks were seventy feet 
in length by thirty feet in width, with a seven-foot post and 
low roof. The house was divided into two departments, 
sub-divided into two rooms each with a fireplace. 

Two years later, on July 23, 1748, the patrolling scout 
from Fort Schaghticoke was followed up to Fort Massa- 
chusetts by savages. At four o'clock on the morning of 
August 2d, Lieutenants Severance and Hawley ^ and forty 
I soldiers laden with provisions from Fort Deerfield noted 
ii another band of warriors skulking along behind them. 
■ Sharpshooters were later posted in the watch-towers and 
about six o'clock the bloodhounds located an ambuscade 

'See illustration of first Fort Massachusetts, Chapter VI., p. 129. 
'Capt. Ephraim Williams's Letter to Maj. Israel Williams, Aug. 2, 1748; 
Perry, Origins in Williamstown, pp. 208-209. 



148 The Hoosac Valley 

of Indians near the Hoosac ford. Captain Williams was 
preparing to send forth fift}^ men to rout the enemy, when 
a savage fired upon one of the dogs. 

A party of undisciplined lads rushed outside the gate to 
see the sport and immediately fifteen guns were turned upon 
them, and Captain Williams was forced to advance with only 
thirty-five men in order to prevent their being scalped. 
A hot skirmish ensued for ten minutes and the savages 
retreated, only to allow an ambush of fifty warriors to rise 
ten rods from the fort gate. The English quickly entered 
the fort gate and turned the cannon and small arms upon the 
enemy. For an hour and three quarters by the hour-glass 
there were loud war-whoops, after which the Indians sullenly 
retreated down the valley. Two English soldiers were mor- 
tally wounded and died later. One of the cannon-balls 
fired upon that eventful morning was found by Capt. Clem- 
ent Harrison over a century later imbedded in the roots of an 
upturned oak on St. Francis Ledge. It now reposes among 
the relics in the museum of the Fort Massachusetts Historical 
Society in the North Adams Public Library. 

The signing of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle on October 
18, 1748, closed King George's War between England and 
France and Fort Massachusetts garrison decreased in num- 
bers. The muster-roll' between December, 1747, and March, 
1748, contains forty-two names under Lieutenant Hawle}-, 
and the subsequent autumn muster-roll contains the names 
of eighty -four soldiers, thirty of whom were dismissed later. 
The closing muster-rolP for December 11, 1749, contains 
fifty -four names under command of Capt. Ephraim Williams, 
Jr. ; and the opening muster-roll ■' of 1750 for the three border 
forts, Massachusetts, Pelham, and Shirley enrolled only 
twenty-one names, proving that temporary peace reigned 
on the frontier. 

'See note 6, at end of volume. ^ Ibid., note 7. ^Ibid., note 8. 







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150 The Hoosac Valley 

During the early part of 1750 Captain Williams was 
granted a farm of two hundred acres about Fort Massa- 
chusetts, besides a valuable mill-lot near the junction of the 
Mayoonsac with the Ashawaghsac on the site of North 
Adams. Ten acres surrounding Fort Massachusetts was \ 
reserved for a garrison garden. 

The muster-roll ' closing January, 1 75 1 , contains only seven- 
teen names under command of Captain Williams, all of 
whom became proprietors of house-lots in West Hoosac, 
now Williamstown. During the early summer of 1751, 
Jedidiah Hurd built Ephraim Williams's Mills on his mill- 
lot. At the same time a bridge was erected over the Asha- 
waghsac ford, connecting the grist-mill with the saw-mill; 
and a watch-tower forty feet high by eight feet square was 
built on the northwest angle of Fort Massachusetts. Cap- 
tain Williams readjusted his artillery and hoisted an English 
flag with "halyards five yard fly." This was the first 
English flag unfurled in Hoosac Valley. 

On August 18, 1 75 1, Captain Williams and his garrison 
soldiers, Isaac Wyman, Samuel Calhoun, Ezekiel Foster, 
Silas Pratt, Elisha Chapin, and Dr. Seth Hudson, Gent., 
petitioned the General Court to enclose two and three-fourth 
acres of the ten acres of the garrison garden with a palisade, 
as Indians still hovered about the valley. A week later 
eight Schaghticoke chieftains called on Captain Williams 
at Fort Massachusetts and said :^ that "the land was theirs, 
and the English had no business to Settle it Until such times 
as they had purchased of them ... it was theirs as far 
South as the head of all strearns that Emtied into Hoosuck 
River . . . and their price was £800 ye York money." 
Captain Williams replied that their price was too high and 
that the EngHsh "now held the land by Right of Conquest." 

An English scout from Fort Dummer on August 27, 1751, 

» See note 9, at end of volume. ' Ibid., note 10. 



The Battle of Lake George 151 

reported that the St. Francis, Penobscot, St. Regis, and 
Schaghticoke kindred were on the war-path headed for 
Enghsh Hoosac. Col. Israel Williams directed Capt. 
Ephraim Williams, Jr., to set the proposed three thou- 
sand pickets about the garrison garden on September 1st, 
although the savages did not disturb the Fort. 

Lieut. -Governor Phipps on September 3, 1751, reported 
the Schaghticokes' challenge to ownership of the headwaters 
of the Hoosac to the House of Representatives. On January 
23, 1752, Captain Williams of Fort Massachusetts and Col- 
onel Lydius of Albany were appointed to make an "Enquiry 
respecting the Indian Title" in order to ascertain whether 
it belonged to the Schaghticokes or to the Stockbridge chief- 
tains. But the approach of the French and Indian War 
closed all negotiations of the Governor of Massachusetts 
with the Schaghticokes. 

Capt. Ephraim Williams, Jr., resigned the command of the 
border forts and was commissioned major of the southern 
regiment of Hampshire militia, June 7, 1753, under Col. 
John Worthington of Springfield. He sold his Fort Massa- 
chusetts farm and mills to his successor, Capt. Elisha 
Chapin, who commanded Fort Massachusetts between June 
I, 1 75 1, and September i, 1754. 

Meanwhile, in August, 1754, Col. Ephraim Williams, Sr., 
died at the home of his cousin, a daughter of Col. Israel 
Williams, and wife of Rev. Jonathan Ashley of Old Deerfield. 
His gravestone is located near the tomb of Sergt. John 
Hawks, and the epitaph reads as follows: 



IN MEMORY OF 
COL° EPHRAIM WILLIAMS, Esq. 

Of Stockbridge, Who died Aug^' Ye 

11'", 1754, In Ye 63"^ Year of 

His Age 



152 The Hoosac Valley 

Blest be that Hand Divine which laid 

My Heart at rest beneath this humble shed. 

Col. Israel Williams desired Maj. Ephraim Williams to 
take command of Fort Massachusetts in 1754, and requested 
Governor Shirley to retire Capt. Elisha Chapin. ' The 
Governor did not wish it to appear to the world that he had 
offered the worthy Captain Chapin a military slight to 
favor the request of Col. Israel Williams, known as the 
Tory "Monarch of Berkshire" and desirous only of immor- 
talizing the name of the "Williams family." Capt, Elisha 
Chapin was retired, and his muster-roll- of Fort Massachu- 
setts garrison between June, 1752 and 1753 contains the 
names of the founders of Fort Hoosac and Williamstown. 

The outbreak of the French and Indian War was followed 
by the St. Francis raids in Hoosac Valley during May and 
August, 1754. Three expeditions were planned against New 
France under Generals Braddock, Shirley, and Johnson. 
About April 10, 1755, General Shirley commissioned Maj. 
Ephraim Williams of Fort Massachusetts colonel of a regi- 
ment, and he rallied his volunteer troops mainly from 
Massachusetts border forts. The last muster-roll-' of 
Fort Massachusetts, under command of Ephraim Williams, 
bears date between September i, 1754, and March, 1755, 
sworn to previous to his march with his regiment from Boston, 
June 13, 1755, to Greenbush encampment. The muster-roll'' 
under Lieut. Isaac Wyman, was dated in July, 1755. 

Col, Ephraim Williams marched his troops over the 
"Old Albany Road," built in 1735 by the English mission- 
aries between Barrington and North Egremont to Green- 
bush, N. Y., and encamped on the site of the subsequent 
"Mount Madison Cantonments" of Revolutionary days. 

' Perry, Origins in Williamstown, pp. 250-255. ^Ibid., note 12. 

2 See note 11, at end of volume. ^Ibid., note 13. 



The Battle of Lake George 153 

Saturday, previous to July 8, 1755, Colonel Williams was 
quartered with Capt. Smith Ayers, General Braddock's 
engineer. Ayers 's grandson, Thomas Ayers, resided on a 
farm in New Lebanon, N. Y., at the opening of 1800 and 
married a granddaughter of Patroon Hendrick Schneider of 
"Schneider Patent" in Dutch Hoosac. Captain Ayers and 
Colonel Williams were placed in command of building a fleet 
of boats to convey provisions up the Hudson. General 
Johnson later designated Colonel Williams's regiment to 
build military roads and forts between Fort Albany and 
Lake St. Sacrament. 

Supplies were short at Colonel Williams's Greenbush camp. 
In a letter to Col. Israel Williams, dated July 15, 1755, he 
stated that many of his men were ill for want of proper food. 
At the same time General Johnson's officers were greatly 
depressed by the report of Braddock's death on July 9th. 
A military jealousy existed between Generals Shirley, John- 
son, and Washington. The last two mentioned were both 
gallant youths of twenty-two, while General Shirley was their 
elder and was appointed major-general of the army. 

Col. Ephraim Williams visited a lawyer in Albany and 
drew up his last Will^ on July 22, 1755. He sent it with a 
letter of advice to his cousin. Col. Israel Williams, at Hatfield. 
The will contained a clause to provide for the founding of 
a free school in East Hoosac, now North Adams, and West 
Hoosac, now Williamstown, for the children of Fort Massa- 
chusetts garrison soldiers. 

Early on August 2d, Colonel Williams and his troops were 
ordered to march up the Hudson to Fort Lyman, christened 
in honor of its builder. Colonel Lyman. General Johnson 
promptly rechristened the post. Fort Edward, after King 
George's grandson. This slight to his First Lieutenant 
roused the enmity of the New England soldiers. In order to 

' Perry, Origins in Williamstown, pp. 479-483. 



154 The Hoosac Valley 

patch up the slight, the gallant Irish General rechristened 
Lake St. Sacrament, Lake George; and after the English fort 
was built, during the autumn, at the head of Lake George, 
he designated it Fort William Henry in honor of King 
George's brother. Later Gen. William Johnson was bur- 
dened with the title of baronet, and Parliament voted him 
£5000 for his services for christening, rather than for 
buildmg, forts. 

Owing to a coolness arising between General Johnson and 
Lieut. -Colonel Lyman, Col. Ephraim Williams was appointed 
to lead the New England troops against Dieskau's St. 
Francis Legions of Canada. The regiment of four hundred 
men and thirty officers comprised ten companies, which were 
headed by Colonel Williams, Lieut. -Colonel Pomeroy, Major 
Ashley, and Captains House, Burt, Hawley, Porter, Ingersoll, 
Hitchcock, and Doolittle. 

Colonel Williams's men were delayed two weeks at Fort 
Edward before General Johnson's Mohawk scout returned 
from Canada. He reported that General Dieskau was on 
the march with eight thousand French and St. Francis 
warriors headed for Fort St. Frederic. A council of war 
was called, August 22d, after which reinforcements were 
requested from the colonies. 

On August 23, 1755, Colonel Williams wrote from Fort 
Edward his last letter which was addressed to Col. Israel 
Williams, in which he said: "Not less than ten or twelve 
thousand men are needed to reduce Crown Point." At that 
time Johnson's army did not exceed three thousand men, 
including the New Hampshire troops, and Colonel Williams 
exclaimed : 

Therefore suffer me once for all to beg of you to exert 
yourself for your country — it 's upon the brink of ruin. 
It 's who shall remember Sr what King William said, when 



The Battle of Lake George 155 

the case of the Dutch was pretty much the same, with 
our's — I pray God unite your Councils, and show the world 
you are true patriots of your Country, and give to us to 
behave as becomes Englishmen. " 

Three days later General Johnson broke up his Fort Edward 
encampment and on August 26th marched to the head of 
Lake George. He left Col. Joshua Blanchard with Captains 
McGinnis and Folsom, and their five hundred New Hamp- 
shire troops, to defend Fort Edward. Meanwhile General 
Dieskau and his legions arrived at Fort St. Frederic. He 
sent out scouts to locate Johnson's army and followed with 
a scouting brigade of 3500 French regulars, Canadians, 
and St. Francis and Abnaquis warriors, intending to seize 
Fort Edward. He captured the American wagoner, Adams, 
who was on his way to warn Colonel Blanchard of the 
enemy's advance. He learned that Johnson's main army 
lay encamped at head of Lake George and called a council 
of war; his Indians refused to face the mounted cannon of 
Fort Edward, but were eager to attack the English about 
Lake George. 

At midnight, Sunday, September 7, 1755, Johnson's 
wagoner brought news also of French and Indians marching 
toward Fort Edward. He called a council of war, at which 
it was planned to send two detachments of five hundred 
troops each to overtake the enemy in their retreat from Fort 
Edward. King Hendrick of the Alohawks at that time was 
over eighty years old, and he significantly took up a stick 
and easily broke it in two. He then put several sticks to- 
gether which he could not break. He shook his head and 
in his broken English said: "If they are to be killed, too 
many; if they are to fight, too few." General Johnson 
thus joined both detachments in one body commanded by 

' Perry, Origins in Williamstown , pp. 337-338. 



156 The Hoosac Valley 

Colonel Williams, King Hendrick's two hundred Mohawks 
being placed in front to act as scouting party. 

Monday, September 8, 1755, about eight o'clock. Colonel 
Williams began his march down the Fort Edward Road. 
After advancing two miles the cowardly Mohawks fell to 
the rear, and Colonel Williams halted his army w^hile they 
marched to the front ranks. General Dieskau, meanwhile, 
had no intention of retreating from Fort Edward and he 
planned to surprise Colonel Williams as General Braddock 
had been outwitted on the banks of the Monongahela in 
Ohio Valley. He placed his warriors on three sides of the 
deep ravines of the Old Military Road, so as to form a 
"Hook"' or letter "U," and awaited the arrival of Colonel 
Williams's troopers. 

At half-past ten o'clock the Mohawks had wholly marched 
within the trap and were quickly followed by Colonel Wil- 
liams and King Hendrick. The latter, mounted on John- 
son's Narragansett pony owing to his age, rode abreast 
of Colonel Williams. He exclaimed: "I smell Indians!" At 
that instant a St. Francis warrior asked him: "Whence 
come you?" To which Hendrick replied: "From the 
Mohawks. Whence come you?" He replied: "From Mon- 
treal." At that instant a report of a longue Carabine 
warned their kindred Mohawk and Schaghticoke scouts, 
but too late. A terrible war-whoop rang through the forests 
and this was answered by the French and Canadian rifles. 
The Mohawks fell on all sides and King Hendrick was 
bayoneted. 

Colonel Williams ordered his men to ascend a hill on the 
right, when a volley from its western slope sent a fatal ball 
through his head, and he fell to rise no more. Confusion 
reigned until Lieut. -Colonel Whiting rallied Williams's 
scattered men, while the French regulars pursued them to 

' Perry, Origins ijt Williamstown, illustration, p. 349. 



The Battle of Lake George 157 

the shore of a small pond two miles south of the English 
encampment. Johnson overheard the raging battle and 
ordered Lieut. -Colonel Cole with three hundred men to 
reinforce Colonel Whiting's men. General Dieskau's men 
were an hour and a half driving them into Johnson's camp. 

The hot fire of Johnson's cannon was turned upon the 
French regulars for an hour before they were repulsed. 
General Dieskau later recorded that: "The English, in ye 
morning, fought like good boys, at noon like men, but in the 
afternoon like the Devil." Johnson's cannonading, not- 
withstanding that the wind blew from the south, was over- 
heard in Old Saratoga. General Johnson received a painful 
wound in his thigh, after which the command of the whole 
army fell to his slighted Lieut. -Colonel Lyman, who, although 
in the heat and fury of that terrible day, escaped without 
a scratch. 

General Dieskau, twice wounded, ordered his adjutant 
to abandon him and lead his men forward in one last attack 
against the English. It was too late, and one by one the 
English wagoners and camp followers leaped over the para- 
pet of the French earthworks and plundered the dead and 
captured the weapons of the wounded and dying. Thus 
closed the Noon-day Scout. 

As Dieskau's Canadian Legions retreated from the shores 
of Lake George, they met the grandsons of Kryn's Caughna- 
wagas and Rale's St. Francis warriors, who deserted Dieskau 
during the "Early Morning Scout." They fled before the hot 
fire of Captains McGinnis's and Folsom's three hundred New 
Hampshire Scotch-Irish and Dutch lads, who had overheard 
a "Noise of a Multitude of Guns" at Fort Edward. They 
arrived on the battle-field in time to close the Sunset Scout 
and help win the victory. While McGinnis was giving final 
orders to his men, he was mortally wounded, although he 
realized it not, and fell fainting to the ground. 



158 The Hoosac Valley 

An exultant shout of victory of the English rang through 
the moaning ravines about five o'clock in the afternoon, 
as the long shadows reflected the forests in the clear depths of 
the old Horicon's lake, while the shores of the little pond two 
miles south lay thickly strewn with the dead and dying 
enemy. The Roman Legions of New France, recorded Dr. 
Thomas Williams in a letter to his wife at Old Deerfield, 
dated September ii, 1755, "Were smartly paid, for they left 
their garments and weapons of war for miles together, after 
their brush with the Hampshire troops, like the Assyrians 
in their flight." 

Lieut-Col. Seth Pomeroy reported that he was the only 
surviving field-officer of Col. Ephraim Williams's regiment. 
He prepared "forty biers made of cross-poles" to collect 
the dead upon, and sent troops for miles about the ravines 
to gather the English, French, and Indian victims. Hun- 
dreds of the enemy slain on the shores of the little pond 
south of Lake George were thrown in the shallow waters, 
which reflected the stain of a nation's blood. The lakelet 
is to-day known as "Bloody Pond." 

The body of Colonel Williams was found on the rocky 
eminence where he met death, west of the Old Military 
Road. His brother, Dr. Thomas Williams, recovered his 
"French firearms, case of pistols, sword and watch," after 
which he was buried beneath a large pine tree near where he 
fell. His French firearms were willed to Col. John Worth- 
ington — "in case the French do not get them," but his 
body had not been plundered by the enemy. His watch 
and sword, together with the sword of Dr. Thomas Williams, 
descended to Capt. Ephraim Williams, U. S. A., and Bishop 
John Williams of Connecticut, great-great-grandsons of 
Dr. Thomas Williams of Old Deerfield. During the cen- 
tennial of the Battle of Lake George, September 8, 1855, the 
relics were presented to Williams College. ^ 

' Perry's Historical Collection, Clark Hall. 



The Battle of Lake Georo;^e 159 



The rock upon which Colonel Williams fell remained a 
shrine where patriotic soldiers continued to step aside from 
the Old Military Road and cast stones until long after the 
close of the War of 18 12. The Alumni of Williams College 





Col. Ephraint Williams's Sword and Watch recovered from Ins body dflcr 

his fall in the Early Morning Scout of the Battle of Lake George, September 8, 

I75S- 

Another hand thy sword shall wield, 

Another hand thy standard wave, 

Till from the trumpet's mouth is pealed 

The blast of triumph o'er thy grave. 

Bryant, The Battle- Field. 

on September 8, 1855, erected a monument on this tradi- 
tional rock. 

One of the pioneer settlers on the shores of Lake George, 
located Colonel Williams's grave, and, during 1837, Dr. 
W. S. Williams, a grandson of Dr. Thomas Williams of 
North Carolina, recovered his granduncle's skull, containing 
the fatal ball of 1755. Edward Weeks Baldero Channing, 
chairman of the Alumni Committee of Williams College, 
later marked the site of Colonel Williams's grave with a 



i6o 



The Hoosac Valley 



iiSP 




Monument marking the Rocky Hill near where 
Col. Ephraim Williams fell in the Battle of 
Lake George, September 8, 1755. Monument 
erected by Alumni of Williams College, September 
8, 1855- 



huge boulder, upon 
which are chiselled 
his initials, "E. W." 
In 1880 David Dud- 
ley Field, an alumnus 
of Williams College, 
engaged Arthur La- 
tham Perry to pur- 
chase the site of 
Colonel Williams's 
grave, in the name of 
the President and 
Trustees of Williams 
College, after which 
Robert R. Clark of 
Williamstown e n - 
closed the plot with 
an iron fence. 

Historian Perry 
wrote that Colonel 
Williams's fame will 
outlast that of the 
famous General, 
Baron D i e s k a u , 
since, on his march to 
the battle-field upon 
which he fell, he 
' ' turned aside to do a 
conscious act of last- 
ing benefit to those 
then unborn," and 
marched forward to 
seal the contract 
with his own blood. 



The Battle of Lake George i6i 

General Dieskau in a letter to M. de Vaudreuil of Can- 

; ada, dated at the English Camp, at Lake St. Sacrament, 

'' September 15, 1755, said that he attributed his defeat to the 

"scurvey treachery" of the St. Frangois or Caughnawaga 

I Indians of the St. Lawrence, and the St. Francis or Abnaquis 

\ warriors of the St. Francis missions under the Jesuits. He set 

! sail for England in the spring of 1 757, and three years later met 

Diderot in Paris. He died in 1762. In Diderot's Memoires, 

published in 1830, he related several conversations held with 

Baron Dieskau relating to the Battle of Lake George. The 

French documents also record the battles fought by Lieut. - 

Colonel Dieskau under Gen. Marshall Saxe during the War 

of Flanders and are published in Elysian Fields.^ Those 

records also describe the military plans of Dieskau in the 

"Bloody Morning Scout" at Lake George. 

Hotel William Henry at Lake George, erected in 1885, 
stands on the site of Fort William Henry, built during the 
autumn of 1755. The present railroad, constructed in 1880, 
crosses the site of Johnson's encampment. 

A bronze statue of Col. Ephraim Williams, the hero of 
Lake George, should be erected on the conical summit of 
Mount Williams, — the northern abutment of the ramparts 
of Greylock Park Reservation of Massachusetts, in memory 
of the New Englander who laid down his life to found the 
Anglo-American's freedom of Church and State. 

Distance alone proves great men great. 

' Doc. Hist., N. F., X., pp. 340-343. 
II 



CHAPTER VIII 

FORT HOOSAC PROPRIETY AND WILLIAMSTOWN 

I749-1815 

. . . Away to the woodland scene. 
Where wanders the stream with waters of green. 
As if the bright fringe of herbs on its brink 
Had given their stain to the waves they drink; 
And they, whose meadows it murmurs through. 
Have named the stream from its own fair hue. 

Bryant, Green River. 

Survey 1749 — Indian Ambuscades — French and Indian War, 1 754-1 763 — 
Fort Hoosac, 1756 — Taverns — Mills — Schools — Congregational and 
Baptist Churches — The Square — White Oaks — Kreigger Mills — South 
Village — First Town-Meeting — Incorporation of Williamstown, 1765 — 
Militia — ^Revolutionary War until the War of 18 12 — Burial-Fields. 

LITTLE is known of West Hoosac propriety between its 
' survey in 1749 and the completion of Fort Hoosac 
near The Square on March 22, 1756. It became the frontier 
settlement of Massachusetts, however, during the French 
and Indian War and remained so until the incorporation of 
WilliamstowTi in 1765. 

The General Court on April 18, 1749, commissioned 
Colonels Partridge, Dwight, and Choate and the surveyor, 
Nathaniel Dwight, to "repair to the Province Lands near 
Hoosuck" and survey tw^o towTis six miles square, incor- 
porated to-day in WilliamstowTi, Adams, and North Adams. 
The chairman. Col, Oliver Partridge, reported November 
loth, that his junketing party arrived at Fort Massachusetts, 
October 2^, 1749. Surveyor Dw^ight first measured the dis- 
tance from the fort north to the "White Oak Tree marked 

162 



Fort Hoosac Propriety and Williamstown 163 

M, C. I. T.," on Hazen's Massachusetts boundary, twenty- 
four miles east of Hudson River. 

The northwest corner of WilHamstown was thus estab- 
lished four miles west of Hazen's marked white oak tree, 
about a mile east of the summit of Mount Belcher of the 
Taconac Range in Moon Hollow. The western line ex- 
tended southward along the Taconacs to a point west of 
Mount Stratton ; thence southeasterly over the south brow of 
Stratton to a point southwest of the tower on Mount Grey- 
lock; thence northeasterly eight and one-fourth miles, a 
few rods west of Greylock tower and Mount Fitch, obliquely 
over the shoulder of Wilbur Park down through the centre 

'of Blackington Mills; thence half way up Alberta's Range, 
known as East Mountain, to Hazen's Line on Mount Hazen; 
thence westerly to the marked white oak tree. These lines 
enclosed nearly 30,000 acres of lowland and mountain 
summits. 

Lieut. -Governor Phipps on January 17, 1750, commis- 
sioned James Minot, Col. Samuel Miller, and Capt. Samuel 
Livermore to survey sixty-three house-lots in West Hoosac 
village plot, not to exceed twelve acres each. Main Street 
was laid out fifteen rods wide and extended from the site 
of Green River Bridge westward one and a third mile over 
four eminences, rising a hundred feet above Hoosac River 

I to Buxton Brook. The Square, located on the third hill, is 

I formed by the junction of North and South streets, six 
rods wide, bisecting Main Street, The Plan forms a per- 

I feet Greek Cross and the four hills of the village are encircled 
by Buxton and Hemlock brooks, and Green and Hoosac 
rivers. The Plan was accepted by the General Court, 
April 6, 1750, and the lots advertised for sale about 
Boston, Hartford, Litchfield, and Canaan centres. 

Three of the best lots facing The Square were reserved 
for the support of the first minister, church, and school and 



164 



The Hoosac Valley 



the remaining sixty were sold for £6 each, drawn by chance 
Each buyer was entitled to one sixty-third part of the whok 
town, divided later by eight general divisions. According 

Original Drawings of House-lots 



Hatfield, Reuben Balding 33 

Fort Mass, M'ch. Harrington 31 

Unknown, Nathl. Russell 29 

Unknown, George Willis 27 

Unknown, Lemuel Avery 25 

New London, Ct. Thos. Moffat 23 

Unknown, Elizur Dickinson 21 

Fort Mass, John Chamberlain 19 

Hatfield, Moses Graves 17 

New London, Ct. Thos. Moffat 15 

Fort Mass, Ezekiel Foster 13 

Hatfield, Joseph Smith 11 

Fort Mass, Dr. Seth Hudson 9 

Stockbridge, Josiah Williams 7 

Fort Mass, Saml.Calhoon 5 

Hatfield, Timo. Woodbridge 3 

Stockbridge, Saml. Brown Jr. 1 



Buxton Brook 



Fourth Hill 



Hemlock Brook 
Bridge 



Third Hill 



34 John Moffat, Boston 

32 Elisha Williams Jr. Weatherfield 

30 Thomas Train, Fort Mass. 

28 Isaac Wyman, Fort Mass. 

26 Josiah Dean, Canaan, Ct. 

24 Wm. Chidester, Fort Mass. 

22 Benj.Simonds, Fort Mass. 

20 Aeneas Mackey, Unknown 

18 Joel Dickenson, Hatfield 

16 Josiah Williams, Stockbridge 

14 Abner Roberts, Fort Mass 

12 Saml. Wells. Hatfield 

10 Ephm. Williams Jr. Fort Mass. 

8 Ephm. Williams Jr. Fort Mass. 

6 Wm. Chidester, Fort Mass. 

4 Oliver Partridge, Hatfield 

2 Isaac Wyman, Fort Mass. 



Slone Hill 



South Street 
6 rods 
wide 



THE SQUARE 



North Street 
6 rods 
wide 



Johnson Hill 



School 
Fort Mass, Saml. Calhoon 
Stockbridge, Saml. Brown 
Fort Mass, Elisha Chapin 
Unknown, Elijah Brown 
Hatfield, Obadiah Dickinson 
Northampton, Joseph Hawley 
Coleraine, Dainel Hawes 
Hatfield, Elisha Allis 
North Reading, Ebenr. Graves 
Charlemont, Olivur Avery 



Green River 



Coleraine 



35 
37 
39 
41 
43 
45 
47 
49 
51 
53 
55 
57>^ 



Second Hill 



First Hill 



Main Street 

15 rods 

wide 



Green River 
Bridge 



36 Minsters 

38 Ministry 

40 Elisha Hawley, Northampton 

42 John Bush, Fort Mass. 

44 Josiah Dean, Canaan, Ct. 

46 John Moffat, Boston 

48 Moses Graves, Hatfield 

50 Samuel Taylor, Charlemont 

52 Saml. Smith, Coleraine 

54 Saml. Brown, Stockbridge 

56 Ebenr. Graves, North Reading 

58 Saml- Brown. Stockbridge 

59 John Crawford, Worcester 

60 Aaron Denio, Coleraine 

61 Obadiah Dickinson, Hatfield 

62 Aeneas Mackey, Unknown 

63 Danl. Donnillson, Coleraine ^^-p-.. 



to the regulations, each proprietor was required to build a 
dwelling eighteen by fifteen feet with seven foot stud; clear, 
plough, and sow five acres of his house-lot with English 
grass or com within two years after purchase. He further 
agreed to aid in building a meeting-house and in locating a 
learned orthodox preacher on the minister's lot within five 
years, and gave his bond for £50 to the Province treasurer 
for the fulfilment of his duty. 



r> a o o 





4 



V 



*t 







1 ! 



\\ ', 



/ ) 






i65 



i66 The Hoosac Valley 

Owing to the Indian ambuscades and the approach of the 
French and Indian War, lots sold slowly. At the opening 
of 1 75 1, however, the General Court granted Capt. Ephraini 
Williams, Jr., a farm in East Hoosac about Fort Massachu- 
setts. He built a saw-mill and grist-mill on the site of North 
Adams for the service of English Hoosac settlers, and in order 
to encourage buyers, drew lots eight and ten in West Hoosac. 
Thirteen of his garrison soldiers also drew one lot each, 
and Col. Israel Williams of Hatfield induced eleven of his 
neighbors, including Rev. Timothy Woodbridge and Col. 
Oliver Partridge, to draw one lot each, and the sale of sixty 
house-lots to forty-six buyers closed in September, 1752. 

Meanwhile Capt. Ephraim Williams, Jr., resigned the com- 
mand of Fort Massachusetts and sold his Fort Farm and 
mills to Capt. Elisha Chapin and Moses Graves. Six of 
the thirteen original settlers of West Hoosac included Lieut. 
Isaac Wyman of Fort Massachusetts, Dr. Seth Hudson, 
Gent., Benjamin Simonds, Thomas Train, Ezekiel Foster, 
and Ebenezer Graves who built their regulation houses be- 
tween September, 1752 and September, 1753. Seven others, 
including Elisha Higgins, Silas Pratt, Allan and Elihu Cur- 
tiss, Gideon Warren, Darius Mead, and Tyras Pratt, mean- 
while cleared their lots, before September 10, 1753. On that 
date Governor Shirley directed Col. William Williams, Jus- 
tice of the Peace of Pittsfield, to order Lieutenant Wyman 
of Fort Massachusetts to "Notifye and warne" the first 
meeting of West Hoosac proprietors to meet at Dr. Seth Hud- 
son's house, Wednesday forenoon, December 5, 1753. Capt. 
Allan Curtiss was chosen moderator; Isaac Wyman, clerk 
and treasurer; Jonathan Meacham, Samuel Taylor, and 
Josiah Dean, surveyors of highways and the first division 
of fifty-acre meadow lots. Samuel Taylor later owned the 
mill-lot at Taylor's Crotch, near the junction of Hopper 
Brook with Green River, The historic Hudson house in 



Fort Hoosac Propriety and Williamstown 167 

which the first proprietors of West Hoosac met, still stands 
half a mile below its original site on the west bank of Hem- 
lock Brook in Charityville. Dr. Hudson founded Pownal 
propriety in 1760 and practised veterinary surgery. He 
died in a house on the site of the John M. Cole Mansion 
in Williamstown. 

The second meeting of the proprietors was held at Capt. 
Allan Curtiss's house, Thursday forenoon, April 18, 1754. 
Captain Curtiss was chosen moderator ; David King, surveyor 
and path-master of the meadow lots and roads of first divi- 
sion. Oliver Avery and John Crawford were appointed 
to clear a burial-field of half an acre located on the northeast 
corner of lot two on Johnson Hill, near the site of Jerome's 
Mansion. Several of the original Massachusetts buyers 
of house-lots sold their rights to Connecticut men upon the 
approach of hostilities. A third meeting of the proprietors 
took place at Captain Curtiss's house, May 15, 1754, at 
which the fifty-acre meadow lots were drawn, and Captain 
Curtiss was appointed to clear North Street a rod wide from 
The Square over Johnson Hill to Hampshire Line. This 
was the last meeting until after the Fall of Quebec. 

Two weeks after the third meeting of the West Hoosac 
proprietors, the French and Indian War was formally 
announced on May 28th by a party of French and Indians 
marching through Dutch Hooesac. A party of St. Francis 
warriors followed up the Green River trail to surprise the 
Stockbridge settlers. Two Fort Massachusetts scouts 
spied the Indians as far as Lanesboro. While in the act of 
tying their moccasins near a spring, two chieftains were slain 
by the scouts. A party of English and Dutch set out later 
and found the sachems buried in full war costume, and re- 
covered their valuable scalps. 

Dutch Hooesac and the Kreigger hamlets between Peters- 
burgh Junction and Pownal went up in flames. The six 



1 68 The Hoosac Valley 

dwellings of the English at West Hoosac and the mounted 
cannon of Fort Massachusetts were not molested. On August 
28, 1754, the final massacre of Dutch Hooesac took place 
and every vestige of settlement was burned. 

Ephraim Williams was re-appointed commander of the 
Massachusetts border forts on September i, 1754, and Capt. 
Elisha Chapin and Moses Graves abandoned the Fort Farm 
and mills and settled on their West Hoosac house-lots. 
Lieut. Isaac Wyman remained in command of Fort Massa- 
chusetts until Col. Ephraim Williams's death, when he was 
appointed captain until the fort was abandoned in November, 
1761. 

Eleven of the Connecticut proprietors of West Hoosac 
petitioned the General Court, October 17, 1754, to build them 
a stockade fort as a refuge during the perils of the French 
and Indian War. Col. Israel Williams directed them, 
however, to move their families to Fort Massachusetts until 
the close of the campaign of 1755, although they continued 
to clear their land in West Hoosac. On January 18, 1756, 
William Chidester informed Lieut. -Governor Phipps that 
his and five other Connecticut families were the only settlers 
between Fort Massachusetts and Fort Schaghticoke. He 
made it evident that they were in danger of being murdered 
by the French and Indians. Benjamin Simonds, Dr. Seth 
Hudson, Gent., Jabez Warren, Nehemiah wSmedley, Josiah 
and William Horsford aided Chidester, and the fort was 
completed, March 22, 1756, twenty-eight rods west of the 
east line of the Kappa Alpha Society House, on lot six, 
adjoining lot four, upon which Proctor's Mansion now stands. 
Ten soldiers were placed in command under Sergt. Samuel 
Taylor, until succeeded in April by Sergeant Chidester. 

The fifteen Massachusetts proprietors of West Hoosac, 
headed by Thomas Train, who had been presented with Col. 
Oliver Partridge's lot four, petitioned Lieut. -Governor 



i^ort Hoosac Propriety and Williamstown 169 

Phipps, May 2'], 1756, to build a commodious blockhouse 
eighty feet square on The Square. They agreed to donate 
£35 toward its construction, and suggested that it be named 
Fort Phipps. ' 

Meanwhile part of the walls of Fort Massachusetts 
tumbled down. Although repaired by Captain Wyman, it 
was expected that the blockhouse would have to be rebuilt 
from its foundation, or that a commodious fort would be 
constructed in West Hoosac. Sergeant Chidester and his 
Connecticut neighbors of West Hoosac also petitioned the 
General Court to build the new blockhouse on The Square, 

Col. Israel Williams and Capt. Isaac Wyman, however, 
fought against the proposed fort at West Hoosac. The 
latter refused to part with any of his cannon, although he 
had no use for them in the unsettled portion of Hoosac Pass. 
As a result, thirty of the forty soldiers of Enghsh Hoosac 
remained at Fort Massachusetts as did all the artillery, 
including three 4-pounder cannon, one field-piece, two swivel 
guns, and two cohom mortars. 

During the summer, Indians constantly lurked about 
Fort Hoosac, knowing the garrison was ill equipped with 
guns. On June 7th, the scouts — Benjamin King and Wil- 
liam Meacham — were killed a mile west of Fort Massachu- 
setts, near the John Perry cornfield. General Winslow on 
June 15th sent Major Thaxter and one hundred and sixty 
men to patrol the trail from Fort Half-Moon to Fort Massa- 
chusetts. On June 26th, Lieutenant Grout and fourteen 
scouts, while near Cohoha cornfield, opposite Kreigger Rocks, 
in Pownal, were attacked by a party of two hundred French 
and Indians; eight were slain and five made prisoners- — only 
one Schaghticoke scout escaping to carry the news to Fort 
Massachusetts. Captain Wyman sent Ensign Barnard and 
two scouts to bury the dead, June 27th. They, however, 

' Perry, Origins in Williamstown, p. 408. 



170 The Hoosac Valley 

located an ambuscade of warriors by the crackling of sticks 
and were forced to depart. Later, on July 5th, Captain 
Butterfield and one hundred and forty men from Fort Half- 
Moon buried the dead. 

Fort Hoosac was attacked, July nth, by about one hun- 
dred French and Indians who crept up Hemlock Brook. 
They lay in ambuscade until Sergeant Chidester and his 
son, James, in company with Capt. Elisha Chapin, started 
out, armed with their guns, to milk their cows. Both the 
Chidesters were slain, and Captain Chapin was mortally 
wounded and later scalped. During the twilight the savages 
surrounded Fort Hoosac, but were repulsed. They then 
sought the pastures and slaughtered the settlers' cows and 
oxen. Captain Wyman on July 13th sent Ensign Barnard 
and thirteen soldiers over to West Hoosac to bury the dead 
in Johnson Hill cemetery. Dr. Seth Hudson, Gent., became 
Commander of Fort Hoosac and twenty-one of the pro- 
prietors on January 11, 1757, revolted against Captain 
Wyman's niggardly methods of doling out supplies. 

Lieut. -Governor Phipps in May, 1757, commissioned Rev. 
Timothy Woodbridge, Samuel Livermore, and Moses Marcy 
to visit West Hoosac and hear the complaints of the pro- 
prietors. They reported in June that Fort Massachusetts 
was from the first poorly located for frontier defence and not 
worth repairing. Captain Wyman, after a trial, was par- 
doned for his conduct toward Sergeant Chidester, Captain 
Chapin, and Dr. Seth Hudson. 

The first proprietors' meeting after the Fall of Quebec took 
place at Fort Hoosac, September 17, 1760. William Hors- 
ford was chosen clerk and Capt. Isaac Wyman resigned. The 
latter sold his house and lot opposite the site of Hotel Grey- 
lock to Benjamin Kellogg for £140 and at once removed 
from Fort Massachusetts to Keene, N. H. Four proprietor 
meetings were held at Fort Hoosac, however, before it was 



Fort Hoosac Propriety and Williamstovvn 171 

abandoned in September 1761. The first children born 
in West Hoosac were: Rachel Simonds on April 8, 1753; 
Elias Taylor, son of Sergt. Samuel Taylor, on June 27, 
1756; and William Pratt, son of Silas Pratt, in January, 
1760. 

Berkshire County was incorporated in 1761 and in March, 
1762, the West Hoosac proprietors met at Josiah Horsford's 
house, and it was voted to repair South Street, leading from 
The Square over Stone Hill to New Framingham, now Lanes- 
boro. The latter town was first known as Richfield and was 
settled by men from Framingham, England, in 1742. In 
1765, Gov. Francis Bernard, incorporated the town, Lanes- 
boro, in honor of the wife of the Earl of Lanesboro. Tory 
Collins, of the Episcopal Church, was the first minister 
of the town. Later several Baptists and Quakers settled in 
both Lanesboro and New Ashford. 

Most of the West Hoosac settlers hailed from Colchester, 
Litchfield, Canaan, New Milford, New Haven, and Hart- 
ford, Conn. Four districts of out-lots were thrown open 
to settlers in 1760. Benjamin Simonds ran the first inn 
west of The Square, and Stephen Horsford later built the 
Red Tavern and store east of The Square. Isaac Stratton 
opened the first inn in South Village and this was owned 
later by the blacksmith, Samuel Sloan. Benjamin Simonds 
about 1765 built River Bend Tavern a mile north of The 
Square in White Oaks, known to-day as the Charles Prindle 
Place. 

The pine and white oak lots, drawn in the fifth and sixth 
divisions of the township, lay north of Hoosac River. 
Eight pine lots were located in the north angle formed by 
Broad Brook and the Hoosac. The white oak lay in the 
northeast comer of the town on Oak Hill at the base of 
Mount Hazen. 

The first grist-mill and saw-mill were built in 1761 by 



172 



The Hoosac Valley 



Titus Harrison from Litchfield on the Gideon Warren and 
Samuel Payne mill-lot on the lower falls of Green River. 
The gangway was located on *'Pork Lane," known as 
Bingham Street to-day. 

During July, 1763, John Smedley was granted privilege 




The River Bend Tavern built by Benjamin Simonds on north bank of Hoosac 
River in White Oaks neighborhood about 1765. Simonds's Tavern occupied 
the site of the Hoosacs' and Mohawks' favorite River Bend camp along the an- 
cient war-trail leadiiig through a pine grove in the region, between i6og and 

1765- 

to "Set Up a saw-mill" at the junction of Broad Brook 
with the Hoosac, about half a mile north of River Bend 
Tavern, near the highway. Smedley purchased pine 
lots seven and eight, and parts of five mixed pine and 
oak lots. The cellar hole and remnants of the orchard 
may still be seen west of the Boston and Maine Railroad 
tracks — the point where the Hoosac bends northeast to 
the highway. 
The third mill-lot at "Taylor's Crotch" was owned by 



Fort Hoosac Propriety and Williamstown 173 

Sergt. Samuel Taylor near the junction of Hopper Brook 
with Green River, two miles south of Harrison's Mills. 
After Sergeant Taylor moved from the valley, Asa Douglass 
of Hancock, the father-in-law of Samuel Sloan, purchased 
an interest in his mill-lot. On October 15, 1767, the pro- 
prietors voted to grant William, John, and Peter Kreigger of 
Kreigger Rock Mill in Pownal, liberty to "Sett up" a corn- 
mill and saw-mill at "Taylor's Crotch" before August ist 
of the following year. 

The first log schoolhouse was built on the site of Hotel 
Greylock, facing The Square, in 1763, and it was also used 
as a meeting-house and town hall until the First Congrega- 
tional Church was built on the site of Field's Park five years 
later. Among the original homesteads still standing in the 
town may be mentioned the house of the German, Jacob 
Meack, the first doctor of the village, near Hemlock Brook 
Bridge. Deacon Richard Strat ton, a member of the "War- 
ren Baptist Society, " built the first two-story framed house, 
known as the Col. William Waterman homestead, on lot 
fifty-eight. Daniel Day from Litchfield built his mansion, 
now converted into the Greek Letter Society House, on the 
corner of Main and Southwick streets, known also as the 
Dewey homestead. The five Smedley and four Horsford 
brothers from Litchfield also built several mansions between 
The Square and Capt. Nehemiah Smedley's Green River 
homestead at foot of Main Street. Samuel Kellogg from 
Canaan Centre first settled on Capt. Isaac Wyman's lot, 
opposite Hotel Greylock on The Square, and later located 
on the poplar tree farm, east of Captain Smedley's Green 
River homestead. Samuel Kellogg was a son of Benjamin 
Kellogg, a lineal descendant of Joseph Kellogg of Old 
Hadley, who in 1660 concealed the English regicides. 
Elisha Baker from Woodbury, Conn., a maternal uncle 
of Remember Baker and Ethan Allen, settled on a farm 



174 The Hoosac Valley 

east of Samuel Kellogg's farm near Baker Bridge. Isaac 
Stratton, son of Richard Stratton, was the first settler 
in the South Village at the base of Mount Stratton, and 
was followed by Daniel Burbank and the blacksmith, 
Samuel Sloan, 

At a proprietors' meeting held May 21, 1765, Benjamin 
Simonds was appointed to get a copy of Ephraim Williams's 
Will, and Samuel Kellogg to engage the first minister. The 
first town-meeting was held July 15, 1765, and West Hoosac 
was incorporated as Williamstown, in compliance with 
Ephraim Williams's Will. ' At that time twenty-eight home- 
steaders occupied village house-lots and twenty-six others 
resided on out-lots. About five hundred and seventy-eight 
acres of land had been cleared and the proprietors' stock 
included fifty-seven yoke of oxen, eighty-three sheep, and 
twenty cows. The fifty-four original founders of Williams- 
town included the following names: 

VILLAGE LOTS 

Nehemiah Smedley Benjamin Simonds 

Mrs. David Roberts Richard Stratton 

Benjamin Cowles Ephraim Seelye 

Josiah Horsford Samuel Payne 

Thomas Dunton Samuel Kellogg 

William Horsford Asa Johnson 

Elisha Higgins William Wells 

Eli Cowles Samuel Smedley 

John Smedley Jonathan Kilborn 

Titus Harrison Daniel Stratton 

Jonathan Meacham Jedidiah Smedley 

Ichabod Southwick Isaac Wyman 

Derick Webb Stephen Davis 

Elkanah Parris Ebenezer Stratton 

* Perry, Origins in Williamstown, pp. 479-483. 




175 



176 The Hoosac Valley 

OUT-LOTS 

James Meacham Dr. Seth Hudson 

John Newbre Bartholomew Woodcock 

Samuel Taylor Jesse Southwick 

Isaac Searle John Horsford 

Samuel Clarke Joseph Ballard 

Josiah Wright Samuel Sloan 

Robert Mc Master Isaac Stratton 

James Kellogg Moses Rich 

Gideon Warren John McMaster 

Joseph Tallmadge David Johnson 

Nathan Wheeler Thomas Roe 

Daniel Burbank Thomas Train 

Elisha Baker Ebenezer Cooley 

Eight months later, on March 17, 1766, it was voted to 
raise £3 on each of the original sixty house-lots to aid in 
building a meeting-house; and Nehemiah Smedley, Samuel 
Sandford, and Richard Stratton were directed to build on 
The Square the First Church of Christ. It was to be with- 
out a belfry, and its dimensions w^ere to be thirty by forty 
feet. The door faced east and the building was dimly lighted 
by small windows. No chimney was built, and each family 
took their foot stoves to keep warm during the winter ser- 
vices. The main aisle led west from the door to the pulpit 
and the pews faced the aisle. A more commodious church 
with a steeple was built in 1798. 

The first minister, the Rev. Whitman Welch, ' was a grad- 
uate of Yale in the year 1762. He arrived at Williamstown 
in 1765 and soon after married Deacon Gaylord's daughter, 
Marvin, of New Milford, Conn. He was a short, blond man, 
sociable and highly patriotic. He advocated the Armin- 
ian System taught by Rev. Naphtalia Daggett, Professor of 

' Prof. Ebenezer Kellogg, Field's History of Berkshire County, i82g. 



Fort Hoosac Propriety and Williamstown 177 




Divinity at Yale, 1 755-1 777, and delivered his written ser- 
mons in an orthodox manner. During 1792, Deacon Rich- 
ard Stratton, Matthew Dunning, Isaac Holmes, and fourteen 
other members of 
the "Warren Soci- 
ety" also founded 
the First Baptist 
Chapel and built it 
of quartzite stone at 
Kreigger Mills, now 
known as Sweet's 
Corners. 

All the main roads 
from Deerfield, 
Pittsfield, and New 
Lebanon converge 
in one road at the 
Vermont State 
Line. Several his- 
toric inns were cen- 
tered between 
Benjamin Simonds's 
River Bend Tavern 
of Williamstown 
and Charles 
Wright's Tavern, in 
Pownal. Simonds's Inn still stands in excellent preser- 
vation north of Moody Bridge on the bank of Hoosac; 
Silas Stone's White Oaks Tavern near Broad Brook 
Bridge, originally surrounded by white oak trees, is still 
standing in a deplorable condition as a tenement, known 
as Stone Tavern. John Smedley's Sand Spring Inn 
was replaced by Greylock Hall on the present site of 
Dr. S. Louis Lloyd's Sand Spring Sanitarium ; frequenters of 




The Second Congregational Church of Christ 
huilt on The Square in Williamstown, Massachu- 
setts, in 1798. It occupied the site of the First 
Congregational Church completed in 1768, now the 
site of Field's Park at the junction of North and 
South Streets with Main Street. 



178 



The Hoosac Valley 



Esquire Ware's State Line Tavern still take their refresh- 
ments either in Pownal or Williamstown. Jonathan Bridges's 
and Capt. Nehemiah Smedley's large farmhouses served 
as public inns. The huge stone ovens in Col. Benjamin 









Smedley's Green River Mansion, built by Capt. Nehemiah Smedley be- 
tween lyyo and 1777. The Cellar Kitchen Door on the south side of the house 
leads to the Great Stone Oven where many loaves of bread were baked for the 
soldiers who aided in taking Fort Ticonderoga and winning the victory of Ben- 
nington between 1775 and 1777. Smedley Mansion is known as the Benjamin 
Bridges Place to-day. 

Simonds's River Bend and Capt. Nehemiah Smedley's man- 
sions baked many a tempting portion of rye and Indian bread 
and beans for the Revolutionary soldiers. Ephraim Seelye's 
homestead stood north of River Bend Tavern, and the 
original regulation house of Robert Hawkins still stands op- 
posite the site, on the comer of Simonds and Hoosac roads. 
On the sites of Simonds's and Horsford's inns on The 
Square were later located Skinner's Mansion House and the 



Fort Hoosac Propriety and Williamstown 179 

Taconac Inn, both of which burned a few years ago. Man- 
sion House is now replaced by Hotel Greylock. Samuel 
Sloan's Tavern in South Village is now replaced by Idle Wild 
on the site of Prof. R. F. Mills's School for Boys. Esquire 
Ware's Tavern on Vermont State Line has always been a 
famous resort for clandestine marriages of Berkshire and 
Bennington couples. One "Great Room" is located north 
of the Line in Vermont and another south of the Line 
in Massachusetts. Here the matrimonial knot has been 
legalized, if not solemnized, for many fugitive lovers. 

Four cider-brandy stills were built in West Hoosac by 
men of character, soon after the corn-mills, and these brought 
desolation among many families in the valley. Total 
abstinence was agitated between 1820 and 1830, and pro- 
hibition laws are still in force at the State Line House. 

All the White Oaks homesteaders reared large families. 
John Smedley, the miller, raised eight girls, to offset the 
large families of Simonds, Bridges, Seelyes, Danforths, and 
Sweets. The children all attended the district school on the 
site of the stone schoolhouse built in 1838, which is now 
used as a blacksmith's shop. The first store of White Oaks 
still stands north of the Ripley Cole homestead and is used 
as a tenement house, and through the stony pastures of 
River Bend Farm may still be traced the Hoosacs' war-trail. 

After the news of the Battle of Lexington reached English 
Hoosac, Capt. Samuel Sloan of South Williamstown rallied 
a company of "Minute Men." He was joined by Parson 
Whitman Welch and his parishioners of the First Church, who 
fought in the Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17th. Parson 
Welch sold his Green River meadow lot on May 4th to 
Nehemiah Smedley for £70. After Captain Sloan's com- 
pany of "Musket Men"' was formed from the Hoosac 
Minute Men during September, 1775, Parson Welch was 

' See note 14, at end of volume. 



i8o The Hoosac Valley 

among the non-enrolled volunteers who marched with Gen. 
Benedict Arnold's army through the Maine Woods to sur- 
prise the British, He was among those who died from small- 
pox during March, 1776, near Quebec. His wife and three 
children returned to Connecticut later and left their 
Williamstown garden overgrown with Colchester roses.' 

Landlord Benjamin Simonds was commissioned Colonel 
of the Berkshire County militia, August 30, 1775. During 
April, 1777, the County was divided into the North and South 
military districts, and Col. John Patterson of Lenox com- 
manded the South and Col. Benjamin Simonds the North 
regiments. 

It was during August, 1776, that Captain Eddy's company 
of thirty nine ship-carpenters from Providence, R. L, on their 
march to Skenesboro Navy Yard, on Lake Champlain, were 
exposed to small-pox and quarantined in the John Smedley 
mill-house at Williamstown, Dr, William Page inoculated 
them, and Isaac Stratton, clerk of the Council of Safety, 
together with Samuel Kellogg, William Horsford, Daniel 
Stratton, and David Noble were placed in charge of the men 
until they were discharged. The Smedley mill-house was 
known as the "Pest-house" until torn down about 1843. 

After the death of the Rev. Whitman Welch, Parson 
Noble preached at the First Church of Williamstown until 
the Rev. Seth Swift from Kent, Conn., a Yale graduate of 
1774, was installed in May, 1779. The records at that time 
contained the following members' names ^ : 

Elisha Baker Mary Marks Burbank 

Phoebe Nichols Baker Samuel Burchard 

Martha Young Blair Elizabeth Hamilton Burchard 

Daniel Burbank Sarah Luce Byam 

'Bliss Perry, "The Colchester Rose," Youth's Companion, March 31, 
1889. 

' Perry, Williamstown and Williams College, pp. 148-149. 



Fort Hoosac Propriety and Williamstown i8i 



Hannah Davis 
Sampson Howe 
Hannah Foot Howe 
Daniel Horsford 
David Johnson 
Phoebe Cole Johnson 
Henry Johnson 
Abiah Johnson 
Persis Johnson 
Isaac Ovits 
\ Moses Rich 
Thomas Roe 
Mary Wells Roe 
Catherine Davis Smith 
Deborah Spencer 
Isaac Stratton 
jMary Fox Stratton 
Ruth Tyrrel Torrey 
Hannah Wheeler Torrey 
Hannah Torrey Hatfield 
Elizabeth Lewis Williams 
Dea. Nathan Wheeler 
Sarah Wheeler 
Nathan Wheeler, Jr. 
Gideon Wright 
Elizabeth Downs Downing 
Thomas Dunton 
Mary Davis Dunton 
Elizabeth Egleston 



^ 



Nathan Foot 

Marianne Foot 

Israel Harris 

Sarah Morse Harris 

Rachel Baldwin Hawkins 

Samuel Kellogg 

Chloe Bacon Kellogg 

Dea. James Meacham 

Lucy Rugg Meacham 

Jonathan Meacham 

Thankful Rugg Meacham 

David Noble 

Abigail Bennett Noble 

Esther Wilson Ovits 

Mary Roberts 

Anna Dwight Sabin 

Nathaniel Sanford 

David Southwick 

Thankful Davis Southwick 

Mary Dormer Stratton 

Martha Marks Tallmadge 

Marvin Gaylord Welch 

William Wells 

Rebecca Stoddard Wells 

Mary Wilson 

Nathan Bristar Woodcock 

Josiah Wright 

Abigail Wright 

Sarah Wright 



Col. Benjamin Simonds during the last ten years of his life, 
between 1797 and 1807, resided with his second wife, widow 
of Asa Putnam of Brattleboro, Vt., in the Robert Hawkins 
house, opposite his River Bend Tavern. It was his custom 
to sit in an arm-chair by his front door, clad in regimental 
coat, knickerbocker trousers, frilled shirt bosom, white 



1 82 



The Hoosac Valley 



neckerchief, and continental hat, and chat with migrating 
pilgrims. He made his will in 1803 and left his two volumes 

of Brown's Bible 
to his grand- 
daughter, Sally 
Trai n- B lair, 
daughter of Ra- 
chel Simonds and 
Thomas Train 
and subsequently 
the wife of Wil- 
liam Blair. The 
Bible descended 
to Deacon Henry 
Blair, and in turn 
to his son, Austin 
Blair, now resid- 
ing in Salem, 
N.Y. The artist, 
W. Jennys, in 
1796 painted the 
portraits of Col- 
onel Simonds and 
his second wife, 
and they were 
willed to his 
daughter, Polly 
Simonds-Putnam, wife of his stepson, Perley Putnam. After 
being passed among other members of the family, the 
Colonel's portrait came into the possession of Grace Perry of 
Williamstown, Mass., a great-granddaughter of Prudence 
Simonds-Bridges. The historic portrait will undoubtedly 
descend to Grace Perry, eldest daughter of Bliss Perry, who 
is a great-great-great-granddaughter of Colonel Simonds. 




.(T"^- 



, ,joiSVTH^" 



Col. Beyijamin Simonds, Commaiider of the Berk- 
shire Boys behveen 177s ^"'^ ^777- He figured in 
the Council of War held by General John Stark at 
the Catamount Tavern, August ij, 1777, before the 
Battle of Bennington. 



Fort Hoosac Propriety and Williamstovvn 183 

Among the patriotic epitaphs in the Old Hemlock Ceme- 
tery of Williamstown may be mentioned those of Elisha 
Baker, uncle of the Green Mountain Boys, Remember 
Baker and Ethan Allen, He died May 22, 1797. Col. 
Benjamin Simonds's monument bears the simple record to 
his memory as one of the first settlers of Williamstown, and 
a firm supporter of his "Country's Independence." He 
was bom February 23, 1726, and died April 11, 1807. 

A monument to Col. Benjamin Simonds .should be erected 
on The Square in Williamstown. He was the only surviving 
English captive who, taken from Fort Massachusetts to 
Canada by General Rigaud in 1 746, returned and settled in 
English Hoosac. He aided in building Fort Hoosac in 1756 
and served as garrison soldier and member of the Council 
of Public Safety until the Fort was abandoned in 1761. 
He was commissioned Colonel of Berkshire militia during 
the Revolution in 1775 and led in the fatal Battle of White 
Plains, October 28, 1776. During the winter of 1777 he took 
command of Fort Ticonderoga. On August 13, 1777, he 
met with Gen. John Stark and Col. Seth Warner in the 
council of war at the "Catamount Tavern" before the 
Battle of Bennington. 

Henry Ward Beecher of Litchfield County wrote that: 
"From Salisbury to Williamstown and thence to Bennington 
there stretches a country of valleys and lakes and mountains, 
that is to be as celebrated as the lake district of England or 
the hill country of Palestine." 



CHAPTER IX 

EAST HOOSAC PLANTATION AND ADAMS 

I749-1815 

Safe from the Mor)iings golden eye 
And sheltered from the Western breeze. 
These happy regions bosomed lie — 

Hemmed in with hills whose heads aspire. 
Abrupt and rude, and hung with woods; 

Where devious Hoosac rolls his floods. 

Bryant, Descriptio Gulielmopolis. ' 

Survey 1 749 — Proprietors — Mills — Taverns — Congregational Church — 
Militia — Town-Meeting — Adams and North Adams — Baptist, Quaker, 
and Methodist Churches — Schools — Burial-Fields — Fort Massachusetts 
Meadow — Perry Elm. 

THE New England soldiers who marched down the Hoosac 
Pass caught only faint glimpses of tasselled cornfields 
along the banks of the upper Hoosac, between the second 
survey of "East Hoosuck Plantation" in October, 1749, and 
the settlement of the propriety thirteen years later. 

The Ashawagh meadows on the headwaters of the Hoosac 
contain a buried forest. Hemlock logs have been unearthed 
about Kingsley Place near the Cross Road, and several 
original pines were felled on the site of "Slab City," now 
North Adams, which measured from 100 to 114 feet to the 
first limb. 

The valley of the Mayoonsac and the Ashawaghsac, ^ the 

'Perry, Williamstown and Williams College, pp. 340-341. 
' See note i , at end of volume. 

184 



East Hoosac Plantation and Adams 185 

north and the south branches of the upper Hoosac, is closed 
off from the eastern part of Massachusetts by the "For- 




North Adams in 1840 during the Stage-Coach Days, before the building of 
the Hoosac Tunnel Railway through Hoosac Mountain. The view shows the 
Ashawaghsac River Bridge with Colgrove's and Broivns Grist-Mill on the east 
and the Saw-Mill on the west bank of the stream. The Waterman-W ilbur Tavern, 
now Richmond House, together with the Block or Black Tavern, is located on the 
right side of Main Street, and the North Adams House and Bissell Building are 
located on the opposite side of Main Street. I?i the distance is observed the Sec- 
ond Baptist Church on the corner of Eagle and Main Streets, and opposite is ob- 
served theSecond Congregational Church. The Stage-Coaches drawn by four horses 
from Greenfield and Bennington are both arriving at the North Adams House 
where Nathaniel Hawthorne sojourned some time during the summer of i8jS. 

bidden Hoosac Mountain " and from the Green River Valley of 
Williamstown on the west by Mount Grey lock, which range 
is over six miles east and west in extent. Berkshire County 
is fourteen miles in width on the north, and Greylock Range 
is broken only by the Hoosac Pass through North Adams 
and by the Green River Pass through Williamstown. 



i86 The Hoosac Valley 

The General Court, in 1745, granted Samuel Rice a farm 
of two hundred acres, for building a road from Capt. Moses 
Rice's Charlemont Inn, over the Hoosac Mountain to the 
Ashawaghsac ford, on the site of North Adams. Rude wood 
roads at that time led south on the east and west sides of 
Ashawagh Swamp to Lake Pontoosac and Stockbridgc. 
The Raven Rock Road through The Notch, owing to the 
muddy trail of the Ashawagh Meadows, remained the main 
travelled highway long after the opening of the 19th century. 

As early as 1751, Capt. Ephraim Williams, Jr., of Fort 
Massachusetts engaged Jedidiah Hurd to build a saw-mill 
on the west, and a grist-mill on the east bank of the Asha- 
waghsac, and a trestle bridge with a log-railing over the 
stream. The logs of the Ashawaghsac ford and the mill- 
dam timbers were unearthed at the time the abutments of 
the present iron bridge were built in North Adams. Tradi- 
tion records that another saw-mill was built on the south 
bank of the Mayoonsac above its junction with the Asha- 
waghsac in 1756. The Schaghticokes challenged the head- 
waters of the Hoosac hunting-grounds, and lurked in 
ambuscade on the sand knolls opposite the Mayoonsac Mill 
and shot the sawyer at his post. 

After the sandy hillsides of East Hoosac were cleared, 
the soil proved too dry to raise beans and the lowlands were 
too wet to raise English grass and corn. The excellent mill- 
power was considered valuable by the "River Gods" of the 
Connecticut, and during October, 1749, Col. Oliver Partridge 
and surveyor Nathaniel Dwight rode from Hatfield over 
the Hoosac Mountain, and completed the second survey 
of East Hoosac and West Hoosac. 

The south line of East Hoosac — now Adams — began at a 
marked hemlock tree on the bank of the Ashawaghsac — 
now in Cheshire — and ran east to a point on Hoosac Moun- 
tain ; thence north seven miles up the Mayoonsac Valley below 



East Hoosac Plantation and Adams 187 

Hazen's Line of Massachusetts; thence westerly five miles 
to West Hoosac, now Williamstown, at a point north of 
Blackington Mills; thence southward over the west brow of 
Mount Greylock and eastward to the place of beginning. 
Chairman Partridge on November 10, 1749, reported to the 
General Court that he considered four miles of the East 
Hoosac interval "rich and good land." 

On February 16, 1762, the General Court voted that "East 
Hoosuck," known as Town No. I, should be sold at public 
auction to the highest bidders, the set-up price to begin at 
£800. The sale took place at the Royal Exchange Tavern, 
King Street, Boston, on June 2d following, and was struck 
off by prearrangement to Nathan Jones of Weston, Col. 
Elisha Jones, St., Col. James Otis, and Col. John Murray 
for £3200, four times the set-up price. 

The first taverns of the proprietors were located near Fort 
Massachusetts, at Five Points, on the Hoosac Mountain 
Road, and the Raven Rock Road through The Notch. Charles 
Wright, a soldier from Northfield, in Col. Israel Williams's 
regiment that reinforced General Wolfe's army at Quebec 
in 1 759, obtained a tavern license. He built the Fort Tavern 
east of St. Francis Ledge, after Fort Massachusetts was 
abandoned and Capt. Isaac Wyman had moved to Keene, 
N. H., in November 1761. About 1762, Landlord Wright 
moved his wife, Ruth Boltwood -Wright, and their two sons, 
Samuel and Josiah, from Amherst. His third son, Solomon, 
was born in the Fort barracks, December 28, 1763. The 
next spring Wright moved his family to his Pownal inn, ten 
miles down the Hoosac, where he became a large land-owner. 

A number of settlers located on Raven Rock Road, over the 
Ragged Mountains. The blacksmith, Joseph Darby, estab- 
lished a shop two rods below Notch Brook Bridge, near the 
Cady and Knight homesteads; and the Wilbur, Arnold, 
Eddy, and Carpenter families settled in the upper Notch. 



i88 The Hoosac Valley 

Jeremiah Wilbur ran a tavern at the extreme portion of the 
Vale. He owned 1600 acres including Wilbur Park and the 
summit of Mount Greylock. His farm in 1829 was con- 
sidered one of the finest in Northern Berkshire. He then 
owned a dairy of forty cows and five hundred Saxony or 
Merino sheep. 

The Wilbur, Eddy, Carpenter, Arnold, and Niles families 
of Adams, Pownal, and White Creek hailed from Rhode 
Island, and were all related by marriage. John, William, 
and Benedict Arnold of Adams and Pownal were lineal 
descendants of William Arnold of Leamington, Warwick- 
shire, England, who settled in Salem, Mass., in 1630, and 
later joined Roger Williams's Colony of Quakers in Provi- 
dence. His son, Benedict Arnold, was the first Governor 
of Rhode Island. He owned the subsequently famous New- 
port Tower, said to be modelled after an old windmill of 
Leamington, England. He was the father of General Bene- 
dict Arnold of Revolutionary ill-fame. 

Forty-eight settling-lots, containing one hundred acres 
each, were surveyed in East Hoosac and offered for sale 
during October, 1762. Each purchaser of a lot gave his bond 
for £20 to the treasurer of the Province and agreed to pay a 
share of the expense of building roads and bridges. He was 
required to erect a regulation house, to clear, plough, and 
sow six acres with corn or English grass within five years, and 
to aid in building a meeting-house and settle a "learned 
orthodox Minister." 

Col. Elisha Jones, Sr., of Weston, one of the four original 
proprietors of "East Hoosac Plantation," was the father of 
fourteen sons. He became interested in Old Berkshire real 
estate. Col. William Williams, founder of Pittsfield, was 
a son of the Weston minister and a nephew of Col. John 
Stoddard, one of the three original proprietors of Pittsfield. 
In 1748, Colonel Stoddard presented young Williams with 




"^ .. ¥ 



%.. 



Raven Rock Road through the Notch Valley during winter. 

189 



i^o The Hoosac Valley 

a hundred-acre lot on The Square. Col. EHsha Jones, Sr., also 
bought a thousand acres in Pittsfield in 1751, and in 1762 
became one of the four proprietors of East Hoosac. 

Lots sold slowly in the latter town, and during 1766 
Israel Jones, fourth son of Col. Elisha Jones, Sr., then twenty- 
eight years of age, was authorized to survey twenty extra 
settling-lots, dispose of sixty settling-lots, and locate a 
minister before 1767. 

The first proprietors to break sod and build their regu- 
lation houses in North Adams were: Abiel Smith and his 
two sons, Gideon and Jacob ; Justus Blakeley, Jedidiah Hurd, 
John Kilbum, John McNeal, Jonathan Smith, Reuben 
Hinman, Oliver Parker, Sr., and his son, Andrew Parker, 
Samuel Leavenworth, Asaph Cook, the Kingsleys, Israel 
Jones, and Rev. Samuel Todd. 

A log meeting-house was built in 1766, opposite the Cross 
Road between the present Albany Railroad and the Street 
Railway, east of the Hoosac Valley Park gate. The minis- 
ter's lot 48 contained one hundred acres and covered por- 
tions of the present Hodge and Ballou farms. The Ballou 
dwelling is one of the oldest houses standing in the North 
Adams intervale, and is believed to have been Minister 
Todd's regulation house. 

Parson Todd was, at the time of his arrival in East Hoosac, 
a gentleman of forty-seven years. He was graduated from 
Yale in 1734, at the age of fifteen. He located at Woodbury, 
Ct., five years later, and adopted the "New Light System" 
of Whitfield. About the first meeting-house in Adams 
Valley were enacted many romances during blossoming May, 
while the frogs were piping and croaking near by in the 
Ashawagh Swamps. Here the gallant Israel Jones courted 
the minister's daughter, Alithea, and they were married in 
1767 and began housekeeping in the Fort Tavern, until 
their homestead was built on the site of Capt. Clement 



East Hoosac Plantation and Adams 191 

Harrison's Mansion, east of St. Francis Indian Ledge. 
Esquire Israel Jones became deacon of the church and unlike 
his Tory father was a Whig in politics. 

Two years after Israel Jones arrived in East Hoosac he 
had sold seventy-three settling-lots, and Capt. Charles 
Baker prepared a Plan of the town and surveyed two hun- 
dred farms, containing a hundred acres each. The Plan, 
containing the numbers, the positions of farms, and the 
names of proprietors, is found in the Town Clerk's Office of 
North Adams to-day. The name of Nathan Jones appears 
on lot 26, Col. Elisha Jones, Sr., on lot 24, Col. James Otis on 
lot 12, and Col. John Murray on lot 10. Ephraim Williams's 
mill-lot and settling-lot 24 are now occupied by the city 
of North Adams. 

A proprietors' meeting was held at the Bunch of Grapes 
Tavern in Boston, February 5, 1768, and the General Court 
recorded Baker's Plan of East Hoosac. Meanwhile, the 
Ephraim Williams Fort Farm and Mills, purchased by Capt. 
Elisha Chapin and Moses Graves in 1751 for £350, reverted 
to the Williams estate after 1755. In 1770, Esquire Israel 
Jones purchased the farm, and his Tory brother, Capt. 
Elisha Jones, Jr., bought his mills, and agreed to maintain 
them twenty years. Upon the approach of the Revolution 
in 1773, however, Jedidiah Hurd purchased the mills and 
Capt. Elisha Jones, Jr., joined his father, Col. Ehsha 
Jones, Sr., in Canada. 

His mill-lot 24 was subsequently advertised for sale as 
abandoned land by Samuel Adams, President of the Senate, 
John Warren, Speaker of the House, approved by John 
Hancock. After a legal hearing, however, Jedidiah Hurd 
obtained a deed for the mills from the General Court. His 
grandson. Captain Blakeley of St. Paul, Minnesota, a son 
of the pioneer settler, Justus Blakeley, of East Hoosac pro- 
priety, informed the President of Fort Massachusetts His- 



192 The Hoosac Valley 

torical Society during 1895 that he held the certified bill 
of sale of Ephraim Wilhams's Mills to Jedidiah Hurd from 
Capt. Elisha Jones. 

The South Village of Adams was settled by Quakers. It 
contained ten times as many inhabitants as the North 
Village, founded by Congregationalists and Baptists. Old 
Pastor Stoughton, in his election sermon during 1688, said 
that: "God sifted a whole Nation that he might send choice 
grain into the wilderness." After the firing of the first guns 
at Lexington, Parson Whitman Welch and his parishioners 
of the First Congregational Church of Williamstown, headed 
by Capt. Samuel Sloan, faced the British in the Battle of 
Bunker Hill. Captain Sloan's subsequent company of 
"Musket Men" were chosen from the Hoosac "Minute 
Men," and marched with Gen. Benedict Arnold's troops 
against Quebec. Captain Sloan's muster-roll ' included the 
names of twelve men from East Hoosac, now Adams, and 
North Adams; twenty-seven from Williamstown; six from 
New Providence, now Stafford Hill, in Cheshire; nine from 
Lanesboro and New Ashford; one from Windsor, one from 
Sheffield, and a drummer from Boston. 

The muster-roll of the first company of East Hoosac 
militia contained fifty-one men commanded by Capt. Enos 
Parker, son of Oliver Parker, Sr. The New Providence 
Independents, residing on Stafford Hill, now Cheshire, 
organized a company of forty-one men under Col. Joab 
Stafford. They aided the "Fighting Parson," Thomas 
Allen, and his Pittsfield parishioners in tumbling down Col- 
onel Van Pfister's Tory breastworks and winning the Battle 
of Bennington on August 16, 1777. Stafford Hill to-day^ 
like ancient Sarum of England, is deserted. 

After the Americans' evacuation of Ticonderoga on July 
5th, until the surrender of the Britishers at Old Saratoga in 

' See note 14, at end of volume. 



East Hoosac Plantation and Adams 193 

October, 1777, a constant line of New England troopers 
marched over Hoosac Mountain. The Old Brown Tavern 
at Five Points on the side of Hoosac Mountain, and Oliver 
Parker's Fort Tavern were crowded day and night. The 
latter often had a captain's company to dinner, and it is re- 
corded that he served five fat beeves weekly during August, 
1777. His two sons, Enos and Didmus, and a nephew, 
Giles Parker, all led companies against the British. 

Josiah Holbrook, Jr., another East Hoosac patriot, resided 
in a log dwelling near the Reuben Whitman homestead on 
State Street. He captured a band of thirteen Hessians on 
the Walloomsac battle-field, while they were drinking at a 
spring. He seized their rifles, and bawled out to his 
imaginary comrades: "Come on, here they are!" Thus he 
drove them all like unresisting sheep ahead of him to the 
American camp. Upon being questioned by General Stark 
how he managed to capture such a herd, Holbrook replied: 
" I surrounded 'em, Sir ! " ^ Holbrook Street in North Adams 
bears his name to-day. 

A year after the surrender of the British at Old Saratoga, 
East Hoosac was incorporated Adams, in honor of Samuel 
Adams, the "Father of the American Revolution," on Octo- 
ber 15, 1778, and Jericho, south of Williamstown, was 
incorporated Hancock, in honor of John Hancock. 

The first town-meeting of Adams took place near the 
First Church on the Cross Road, March 8, 1779. Nine- 
tenths of the voters resided at the Quaker Village in the 
south part of the town. The officers included: Capt. Philip 
Mason, moderator; Isaac Arnold, clerk; Capt. Reuben Hin- 
man, treasurer; and Capt. Philip Mason, Israel Jones, and 
Reuben Hinman, selectmen. On March 22d, Luther Rich, 
David Jewell, and Eleazar Brown were chosen assessors; 
Elisha Jones, Elias Jones, Gideon Smith (superseded by 

' Hamilton Morris, History of North Adams, 185 9-1 860. 
13 



194 The Hoosac Valley 

Justus Blakeley, June 17th), Jonathan Russe, Stephen Smith, 
PhiHp Mason, Ruluff White, OHver Parker, Jonathan Hale, 
and Daniel Sherman, surveyors of highways; Lemuel 
Leavenworth (superseded by Justus Holt, June 17th) and 
William Barker, collectors of taxes; Edmund Jenks, Benja- 
min Baker, William Smith, Jedidiah Hurd, and John Kilburn, 
Committee of Public Safety. The business of the last named 
was that of patrolling guard to thwart Tory, British, French, 
and Indian spies of American liberty. After the organiza- 
tion of Adams two military companies were formed, and the 
Cross Road was adopted as the military line separating the 
North from the South districts. 

At the first town-meeting, the Baptist and Quaker vote 
won the day and Parson Samuel Todd of the First Congrega- 
tional Church received a minority. He was requested to 
relinquish his rights to the minister's lot 48, granted to him 
for life in 1766 by the General Court, and soon removed to 
Oxford, N. H,, the third town above Hanover, the seat of 
Dartmouth College. He did not relinquish his rights to 
his farm, and this resulted in religious and political contro- 
versies between the settlers of the South Village and the 
North Village until the town was divided. North Adams 
was incorporated in April, 1878, and the military line running 
east and west on the Cross Road was adopted as the boun- 
dary between the two towns. 

The membership of the Congregational Church decreased 
with constant shifting of population and the meeting-house 
was abandoned in 1803. Deacon Israel Jones and his wife, 
Alithea Todd- Jones, attended the Congregational Church 
at Williamstown until the deacon's death in 1828, and he 
was buried in the Hemlock Brook Cemetery in Williams- 
town. The Second Congregational Church was built in 1827 
on The Square in North Adams, opposite the First Baptist 
Church. Parson Todd's lot 48 is now occupied by the North 



East Hoosac Plantation and Adams 195 

Adams Poor Farm, and the dividing line between the two 
towns has recently been removed farther south, near the 
Adams Poor Farm. 

After Parson Todd's resignation in 1779 the people of 
the Adams Valley were without a minister until 1782, when 
it was voted to raise funds and build a frame meeting- 
house, 30 X 38 feet in size, near the corner of Church and 
Pleasant streets in the North Village. The building remained 
unfinished until the arrival of the Rhode Island Baptists. 
Capt. Jeremiah Colgrove from Providence, R. I., was road- 
master in 1793, and headed by the Baptist Elder, Amos 
Brownson, a millwright and carpenter, fifty men with fifty 
yoke of oxen held a "moving-bee" and cleared the stumps 
from Church and Main streets. The meeting-house was 
hauled down Church Street and set on the northeast corner 
of Main and Eagle streets, where it remained unfinished for 
thirteen years. Its floor consisted of loose boards, five feet 
above the ground, beneath which the pet lambs of the hamlet 
assembled during service, and their tinkling bells served as 
diversion for many listless young worshippers. 

About 1806, the meeting-house was completed and the 
Warren Society organized the Baptist Church. Elder Dyer 
Stark was installed as first minister, and preached alternately 
also at the First Baptist Church of Stamford Hollow on the 
upper Mayoonsac in Vermont. Elder Amos Brownson 
frequently preached at the Adams Baptist Church until his 
removal from the valley in 18 16. His homestead stood 
until 1858 on the comer of Eagle and River streets. 

The First Baptist Church was not heated, and each family 
carried a foot-stove for warmth during the winter. The 
building faced south ; and stairways on each side of the porch 
led up to the low gallery. The oblong pews were located 
along three aisles leading to the pulpit, and seated about 
five hundred people. The old meeting-house is still doing 



196 The Hoosac Valley 

duty as a furniture shop and tenement on North Church 
Street, in the rear of the present edifice, now the fourth 
Baptist Church on the site. 

The oldest cemeteries in the Adams Valley besides the 
' ' God 's Acre ' ' of Fort Massachusetts are First Congregational , 
First Baptist, and Old Quaker churchyards. The oldest 
marked gravestone in Adams Intervale is that of Amos Hurd, 
on a sand-hill near Hoosac Valley Park, bearing date No- 
vember 29, 1759. He was a soldier and perished from cold 
and hunger on his homeward march after the Fall of Quebec. 

The oldest graves in the First Congregational churchyard 
lie beneath the wild cherry trees, south of the gate of the 
Hoosac Valley Park, marked by quartzite boulders without 
inscription. The oldest marked tombstones are those of 
"Capt. R. N. Died Jan. 25, 1793" and "Lydia and Ashael 
Ives," who died a century later. Captain Colgrove founded 
4 burial-field on Colgrove Hill in 1795, where the members of 
the First Baptist Church were buried. A few years ago 
their dust was removed to the new cemetery on South 
Church Street near the City Poor Farm, in order to make 
room for a public park on North Church Street, west of 
Drury Academy. 

The Society of Friends and their burial-field was organized 
in 1 78 1, and a log meeting-house was built. The present 
Quaker meeting-house was erected in 1786, a mile west of 
McKinley Square in South Village, by the founders, David 
Anthony and his son, Daniel Anthony (the father of the 
late famous Suffragette, Susan B. Anthony), Isaac Kilby, 
Isaac Upton, Joshua and George Lapham, Adam Harkness, 
Rufus Hathaway, and others. The first speakers were Rob- 
ert Nesbit, Mary Beatty, and David Aldridge. 

The machinist, Hayden, of the Notch Valley organized 
the First Methodist Episcopal Church about 1795, aided by 
the famous revivalist, Lorenzo Dow, who was connected 



East Hoosac Plantation and Adams 197 

with the Petersburgh Circuit of New York. The Methodist 
Church was built in the North Village several years later. 

The District School System of Adams proved a serious 
problem, and only £3 was voted toward the education of 
the first proprietors' children. At the time the Massa- 




Old Quaker Meeting-house built in iy86 on the site of the first log meeting- 
house at base of Mount Creylock, Adams, Massachusetts. In the Burial-field 
west of the meeting-house lie buried many of the pioneer founders of the Adams 
Valley hamlets. 



chusetts Legislature misappropriated Ephraim Williams's 
Free School fund, the Adams citizens raised £150 and estab- 
lished several schools. The town in 1793 was divided into 
the North and South districts and subdivided later into 
smaller districts. 

Private tutors were engaged among the Quaker families. 
Daniel Anthony taught the District School in the South 
Village, and later his daughter, Susan B. Anthony, at the 
age of fifteen years, taught the children of Bowen's Comer 



198 The Hoosac Valley 

at her grandfather's homestead for a dollar a week each. 
In this way she earned money enough to complete her edu- 
cation at the Friends' Seminary in Philadelphia. It was 
little dreamed at the opening of 18 10 that a century later 
the North District, now the city of North Adams, would 
boast of the best equipped State Normal College in New 
England. 

With the advent of Samuel Day, Titus Harrison, Truman 
Paul, Elisha Baker, and Samuel Kellogg several historic 
buildings were built on the Hoosac Road between Williams- 
town and Adams. Day built the Blockhouse Inn previous 
to 1 780 in the North Village of Adams. At first it was used 
as a storehouse for the settlers before the close of the Revo- 
lution, and after 1783 it was converted into Block Tavern. 
It stood on the southeast comer of Main and State streets, 
on the site of Martin Block, and the building was one and 
a half stories high, divided into two huge rooms. The first 
was like a shed, with a large gate for the entrance of teams 
and carry-alls. 

According to a record preserved by the President of the 
Fort Massachusetts Historical Society, Day's Blockhouse 
Inn was built by Capt. Amos Shippee. After the passing 
of the old border forts, it became a mid-way lodge for mi- 
grating settlers. The bar-room proved a rallying place for 
Elder Brownson and parishioners, where each partook of his 
"toddy sticks of rock and rye" and discussed Federalism 
and Democracy between Shays's Rebellion and the close of 
the second revolution in 18 15. One of the most rousing 
scenes associated with the inn took place after the election 
of President Thomas Jefferson and Vice-President Aaron 
Burr in 1801. 

The Jeffersonian Democrat members of the Council of 
Safety collected the pitch-pine stumps lying about the village 
streets and stacked them in front of Block Tavern. They 



East Hoosac Plantation and Adams 199 

were lighted with a torch and produced a never-to-be-for- 
gotten smoke which blackened the front of the inn, after 
which the building was known as Black Tavern. The 
Cheshire Democrats also expressed their enthusiasm by pro- 
ducing the "Great Cheshire Cheese," which weighed 1235 
pounds, made from the milk collected in one day from the 
farm dairies. The cheese was moulded in a cider press and 
required several yoke of oxen to haul it to Hudson ferry 
to be expressed to President Jefferson, The Pittsfield 
Democrats manifested their joy, too, by ringing "Fighting 
Parson Allen's" church bell until they broke the rope. 

There were only five other dwellings in "Slab City," now 
North Adams, in 1780, including Samuel Day's Blockhouse 
Inn and Giles Barnes's, Josiah Wright's, Ely Colton's, and 
William Farrand's dwellings near Ephraim Williams's Mills, 
at the foot of Main Street. Oliver Parker, Sr., owned a saw- 
mill and grist-mill in "Upper Union" on the Alayoonsac, 
although a freshet which occurred on April 17, 1780, known 
as the "Parker Flood," swept away his mills and 50,000 
feet of lumber. The millstone was rolled some distance 
down the stream, where it remained visible to travellers for 
many years. Later Oliver Parker, Sr., ran Kingsley Place 
Tavern and store, where his son, Oliver Parker, Jr., was born 
in 1784. All the bridges were destroyed during the great 
flood and Landlord Parker brought grain on horseback from 
Greenfield, and crossed over three fords to Kreigger Mills in 
Williamstown to get it ground, Capt. Amos Shippee 
brought salt on horseback also, paying $10 per bushel for 
the rare article. 

The period between 1783 and 1793 proved to be a trying 
one for the settlers of Adams, owing to the heavy taxes. 
Several patriots, including Josiah Holbrook, Jr., who fought 
heroically for the American cause during 1777, joined Shays's 
Rebellion in 1786. After the suppression of Shays's men. 



Ilolbnx^k ivtiinitxi to North Adfiins ami it tix^^k fo\ir olVioers 
to anvst him and bind him Ivin^ in his Ixxi. Tho Pown 
K«.wi\is pn^vo that J^'^ah Ih^lbixx^k. Jr.. tix>k tho <.xu]i of 
ahegiamv to tho Con\mon\Yoahh and was jxiniv^nod by Clon- 
t ral Linoohi in 1 787. Esqnire Isiwol J onos \Yas ohi^^stMi agont t o 
jx^tition tho GononU Court in January. 1 70J, for an alwtomoni 
i>f tho Stat tax laid u^xmi tho Adams inhabitants in 1788. 
Collootor Olivor Parkor. Sr.. was niimxi tinanoially and sont 
to jail by his lx>ndsmon Ixvauso ho was xmablo to oolkx^t 
tho apportionoii tax. In spito of his throadlx\n^ ok^thos and 
thin-^^lod Kx>ts ho oi^ntiniuxi to occupy tho scat of honor 
in the First Baptist Church imtil his death. Thnnigli tho 
doprociativMi of tho Continental ''green-lxicks'* many a 
wealthy fanner thrvnighout the IKxx>;io \'allov died in 
pinorty. They wore rtx^uinxi to jx^y :>Jv> in Continental 
sjxvie for a dinrior. Suw* for a siiit of clothes, and the pritv 
of a fann for a cow. 

The piv^grt^ssive era of Adams lx^gi\n about 1 703. njx^n tho 
arrival of tho Rho«.io Island Biiptist manufacturers, including 
Capt. Jeremiah Colgiwe and his brotlior-in-law, Elislia 
Brv^wn. frv^m Prv^x^don^v. Tho fonner marrio*.! a daughter 
of Col. William Watonnan of Williamstown. and ho pn-^^^ie- 
siod in 1795 that "Slab City** would Kxx^mo a gxtwt manu- 
facturing city. Only eleven dwellings stood in tho North 
Village in 1 7v)4. at the time Colgrxn'o and Brown purchased 
JodidivHh Hurvi's Mills, and seventy-five acres of land ex- 
tending east to Colgrv.^ve Hill. They built a twv>-story 
brick grist-mill on the east Ixmk of tho Ashawaghs;\c. now 
the site of Pha^nix Mill, and a saw-mill on tho opposite 
b:\nk. Daniel Harrington rebuilt Olix^er Parker's Mills 
in the ''Upjx^r Union." and Elder Amos Bn^wnsv^n oper- 
atovi a s;^w-mill and ^>laner on the Mayot.^ns:^c imtil he 1 
removed West in i8i6. The blacksmith. Joseph Darby, ^ 
ojx^ned a shop on the Notch Road, iuid Da\*id Estes frv^m 




j2 '-^ ^ 

Co ~ '" 

2 •« * 



^^ -^ J^ 



•i: f~-i 'J^ 



'" s --< 



a ~ V 






201 



202 The Hoosac Valley 

Connecticut opened a mill at the same time as Colgrove and 
Brown. 

Landlord David Darling during 1616 sold the Black 
Tavern to Alphine Smith, who kept open hostelry during 
the stage-coach days until 1836. He dispensed rye and 
Indian corn-bread, baked beans, pumpkin pie, Cheshire 
sage cheese, cider brandy, and sparkling water from the 
hillside springs. He purchased the site of his North 
Adams House of Capt. Jeremiah Colgrove in 1836. In 
1838 Nathaniel Hawthorne mentions the place in his 
American Note-Book as the "Whig Tavern." The site is 
now occupied by the Wilson House. 

During 1 815, Captain Colgrove induced his father-in-law. 
Col. William Wrtemian of Williamstown, to build the 
Waterman Tavern on the southwest comer of Alain and 
State streets. In 1829, James Wilbur, son of Jeremiah 
Wilbur, Sr., of the Notch Valley, purchased the place. He 
repaired the house and added a front porch with pillars and 
a fountain on the lawn facing Main Street. The inn was 
in 1835 considered among the finest in Northern Berkshire. 
About 1866, the Wilbur Tavern was purchased and re- 
modelled by A. E. Richmond and is known to-day as the 
Richmond House. 

Greylock Tavern in the South Village was built by 
Ephraim Bassett before the Revolution. It was later pur- 
chased by the Harteau family, and became famous for its 
social balls. During 1825, General La Fayette was a guest 
at the Harteau Mansion on the Bluff, where it is reported 
that he fell in love with a beautiful x\merican girl who 
was engaged to an officer of Washington's army. The 
Harteau Mansion and Greylock Tavern descended to Henry 
Harteau and his \\-ife, who were know*n as "Lord and Lady 
Bountiful." After the death of "Lord Bounriful" the 
tavern was closed for manv vears. It has recentlv been 



East Hoosac Plantation and Adams 203 

reopened by "Lady Bountiful," who has returned from 
Europe. Rufus Hathaway's homestead and several other 
regulation houses that were used as inns still stand in the 
shadow of Old Greylock on the Raven Rock trail leading 
over the Ragged Mountains. 

Fort Massachusetts Meadow is at present surrounded by 
factory smoke-stacks, church-spires, and school-towers. As 
early as 1770, Israel Jones began to plough down the mounds 
' marking the site of the palisade of forest staddles set by 
I Capt. Ephraim Williams and his men in 175 1. At the time 
of Jones's death in 1828, all traces of the barracks and gar- 
den had vanished, except for a few surviving horse-radish 
plants. 

Capt. Clement Harrison of Williamstown purchased the 

Fort Meadow in 1829, and in 1852 Arthur Latham Perry 

recovered the tombstone of Elisha Nims from the ploughed 

field on the site of the "God's Acre," and it is now on exhi- 

I bition at Clark Hall, Williamstown. In 1858, only a stone- 

: heap and sheep-shed marked the site of the barracks where 

' Albert Hopkins, Arthur Latham Perry, and Capt. Clement 

Harrison located the fort well. It was covered with a flat 

slate stone and contained brick, cooking utensils, and the 

pole-hook of the ancient well-sweep. 

A party of Williams students joined Professors Hopkins 
and Perry in 1858 and planted a sapling elm, although it 
died, as did the second elm planted in 1859. Professor 
Perry later transplanted the present elm from the river 
bank. It was christened "Perry Elm" by the Fort Massa- 
chusetts Historical Society. 



CHAPTER X 

SAMUEL ROBINSON AND HISTORIC BENNINGTON 

I749-I815 

Time rolls his ceaseless course. The race of yore 
Who danced our infancy upon their knee, 

And told our marvelling childhood legend's store 
Of their strange ventures happ'd by land and sea. 
How arc they blotted from the things that be! 

Isaac Jennings, Memorials of a Century. 
Robinson Family-Surveys of Bennington and Pownal, 1749-1760-^,1, 
tary Propnetors-Mills-Churches-Schools-Town-Mectings-Militi, 
— Taverns -Safford Mills-Irish-Corncr- Little Rhode Island- 
Haviland Mills-Sage City-Algiers-Burial-Fields of Walloomsac. 

CAMUEL ROBINSON, the first settler of Bennington, was 
^ captain of the Hardwick company in Colonel Ruggles's 
Massachusetts regiment during the campaigns of 1755" and 
1756. On his homeward march from Lake George during 
the autumn of 1756, he lost the main Hoosac trail and turned 
up the Walloomsac Pass. He and his men pitched their 
tents near the site of the Old Red Bridge on the Manchester 
Road, at the base of Bennington Hill, where the Battle 
Monument now casts its shimmering reflection in the shallow 
waters of the stream. 

The Robinson family of New England descended from 
Samuel Robinson, Sr., of Bristol, Eng., who located at Cam- 
bridge, Mass., in 1680. His son, Samuel Robinson, Jr., 
was born in 1707, and after his marriage to Mary Leonard 
settled in Hardwick, from which town he migrated to I 
Bennington in 1761. He was a lineal descendant of the 
Rev. John Robinson, the first minister of the Pilgrims' 

204 



i Samuel Robinson and Historic Bennington 205 

i Ley den Church of Holland. The latter was foremost among 
I the Separatists or Brownists, who met with Clyfton, Morton, 
Bradford, Smith, and others in 1606 at Brewster's Manor- 
house, the "Post of Scrooby," of the Archbishop of York, 
near the junction of the river Ryton with the Idle, and 
organized a Separate Church "estate in Ye felowship of 
(Ye gospell."' 

The first colonial settlements of New York and New 
England were made by Protestant Dutch Boers, French 
Walloons, and English Pilgrims from HoUand between 161 1 
and 1624. Between 1749 and 1777, Captains Seth Hudson, 
Gent., Samuel Robinson, Thomas Jewett, and other lineal 
descendants of Henry Hudson's crew of the Half-Moon 
and the Rev. John Robinson's Leyden Pilgrims of the ship 
Mayflower, settled in Williamstown, Pownal, Bennington, 
and Shaftsbury, bordering the Twenty-Mile Line of Dutch 
Hoosac between New York, Massachusetts Bay, and New 
Hampshire Grants. 

The original founders of Bennington and Pownal were 
veteran commanders and soldiers in the French and Indian 
War, who rocked the cradles of the Revolutionary "Sons 
of Freedom" in Fort Massachusetts and Fort Hoosac. 
Bennington proved the first town chartered in the Green 
Mountain region, west of the Connecticut River. It was 
planned by Col. William Williams, the "Father of Pitts- 
field," Theodore Atkinson, Foster Wentworth, and sur- 
veyed by Matthew Clyfton nine months before Adams and 
Williamstown. Gov. Penning Wentworth signed and sealed 
the charter, January 3, 1749, although the town was not 
settled until twelve years later. 

The southwest comer of Bennington was located on the 
Twenty-Mile Line of New York by beginning the survey at 

'Henry Morton Dexter, "The First American to Visit Scrooby, 1851," 
New Eng. Mag., Oct., 1890. 



2o6 The Hoosac Valley 

a hemlock tree marked " W. W.," six miles north of a "White 
Oak Tree marked M. C. I. T." on Hazen's Line of Massa- 
chusetts Bay, twenty-four miles east of Hudson River. 
The survey continued four miles west to the established 
corner of a stake and stones, thence north six miles to the 
present marble marker half a mile south of Tory Matthew's 
State Line Tavern, now known as Charles B. Allen's residence, 
thence east six miles, thence south six miles, and west two 
miles to the hemlock tree marked "W. W." 

Bennington and Pownal are types of all the towns granted 
in the Green Mountain State by Governor Went worth. 
Each charter contained a clause for education, religion, and 
"thrift, thrift — Horatio!" Every proprietor was required 
to build a regulation house, clear and cultivate five acres 
out of every fifty acres in his possession within five years, and 
aid in building mills, a meeting-house, schoolhouses, roads, 
and bridges. 

The village plot at Bennington Centre contained sixty- 
four acre lots, and the rest of the town was divided into 
sixty-four equal shares. "One whole Share was reserved 
for the Incorporated Society for the Propagation of the 
Gospel ; and one Share for a Glebe for the Church of England 
as by Law Established, and one Share for the Benefit of a 
School"; and a "Tract of Five Hundred Acres, marked 'B. 
W.' on the Plan, to His Excellency, Benning Wentworth, 
Esq." It was said that in subsequent towns: "If there was 
any Land bad enough to be of man and God forsaken, the 
guileless grantees so managed that that very Land turned 
out to be the 'Governor's Rights.'" A quit-rent of "One 
Ear of Indian Com" for each village lot, and one shilling 
Proclamation Money for every one hundred acres was 
required of the proprietors annually on December 25th. 

Among the veterans of the French and Indian War on 
the Bennington Plan appear the names of Sir William Pep- 




The Walloomsac River above the Old Red Bridge on the Benmnglon and 
Manchester Road, at the northern base of Benmngton Hill. The Battle Monu- 
ment is reflected in the shallow water of the river. It is probably the only place 
where it is reflected in the Walloomsac. 



207 



208 



The Hoosac Valley 



perell of Alaine, General of the New England Rangers, who 
captured the '^Gibraltar Fortress" of the French in 1745, 
and of Capt. Samuel Robinson, Sr., on lot 38; and the names 




i\dn oj Ihnnington Township, granted to Cot. William Wuiuims and others by 
Gov. Benning Wentworth, January j, I74g. 

of Col. William Williams and Col. Israel Williams, nephews 
of John Stoddard, Colonel of the Hampshire (Berkshire) 
militia until his death in June. 1748, and Capt. Ephraim 
WilHams, Jr., of Fort Alassachusetts and his brother, Dr. 
Thomas Williams, besides their half brothers, Josiah and 
Elijah Williams, and cousin, the Rev. John Williams of 



:? .,) aU J'vivinK- 







^'IVCtUUV ^\U 



!. ' . ' t}[m!^^_^_ 



inHWlg&l ■ 



i lr ^nj | yyc » ri i «nicwn,ilft a(fc:.. 



>'n C'Cvrimom! '^■^'^ucivor' 



'>';uu- 




Charter oj Bennmgton, the first Township granted in the Green Mountain State 
by Gov. Benning Wentworth, January 3, 1749. Settled in April, lydi. 



14 



209 



210 The Hoosac Valley 

Deerfield, son of Col. Israel Williams, and several Scotch- 
Irish soldiers from Forts Shirley and Pelham. Gov. Ben- 
ning Wentworth, John and Foster Wentworth, Theodore 
Atkinson, and other members of the Portsmouth Council 
of New Hampshire later sold their shares to Massachusetts 
and Connecticut proprietors. 

The town of Pownal, south of Bennington, was chartered 
by Governor Wentworth January 8, 1760, and named after 
Gov. Thomas Pownal of Massachusetts. The first proprietors 
included Capt. Seth Hudson, Gent., and several Fort Hoosac 
and Fort Massachusetts garrison soldiers, including: John 
Lovatt/John Corey, Ezekiel Hinds, Silas Pratt, Abraham 
Bass, Ephraim Bassett, Charles Wright, Isaac Charles, 
John Horsford, Ephraim Seelye, Sr., Michael Dunning, 
Obadiah Dunham, and others. 

A proprietors' meeting took place in June, 1760, and it was 
voted to give the Dutch burgher, named Kreigger, a "single 
right," on account of mill improvements made at the foot of 
Kreigger Rocks at North Comers, now North Pownal, where 
the first mill in Vermont, west of the Green Mountains, 
was built. The first town-meeting was held May 8, 1763, 
at Charles Wright's Tavern, later known as Rev. John 
M. Bacheldor's Rural School for Boys, now the site of the 
Hon, Amasa Thompson's residence in South Pownal. Capt. 
Seth Hudson, Gent., was chosen moderator; Asa Alger, 
clerk; John Van Arnam, constable; Edmond Town, Asa 
Alger, and Jabez Warren, selectmen; and Thomas Juet or 
Jewett, justice of the peace. The first Tuesday of January 
was set aside for the annual town-meeting. 

The Elder, George Gardner, son of Capt. Caleb Gard- 
ner of Jericho, now Hancock, Mass., was fourteen days 
moving his family and goods to his log parsonage, on the 
site of the Frank Paddock homestead at the foot of Car- 
penter Hill in Pownal. His daughter Sarah proved to be 

' Descendant of Earl of Lovatt. 



Samuel Robinson and Historic Bennington 211 

the first child bom in the town. Elder Gardner planted 
an apple nursery at the age of eighty-five and lived to eat 
fruit from the orchard, nineteen years later, at the age of 
one hundred and four years. The first log meeting-house 
of Pownal was built in the orchard, east of his dwelling. 
Elder Gardner was a Tory and after the Battle of Benning- 
ton he was hung to a fence stake by his leathern waist-band 
until squeezed into a Whig. His grave is marked in the 
Gardner burial-field on Kreigger Rock Road. 

Pownal was thus settled before Capt. Samuel Robinson, 
Sr., from Hardwick, Mass., in April, 1761, set out on horse- 
back for Bennington, to build his log house on lot 38. He 
remained at Capt. Moses Rice's Inn in Charlemont on April 
9th, where he purchased spring wheat, and the next evening 
he remained at Benjamin Simonds's Inn at Fort Hoosac Vil- 
lage, now Williamstown. He reached the maple grove on 
Bennington Hill, April nth, and built his cottage, planted 
a garden, and cleared and sowed a field of wheat. 

During June, a party of twenty-two souls rode over Hoosac 
Mountain Road. It included Leonard and Samuel Robin- 
son, Jr.; Peter, Eleazar, and Mary Harwood from Hardwick; 
and Samuel and Timothy Pratt from Amherst, Mass. They 
remained overnight at Captain Rice's Tavern, June i8th, 
and at sunset the next day dismounted on The Square at 
Fort Hoosac. Capt. Seth Hudson, Benjamin Simonds, 
and Nehemiah Smedley welcomed the pilgrims. The 
Smedley cottage, built in 1753, was surrounded by an apple 
orchard on lot I . Young Smedley was an awkward bachelor 
of twenty-eight when Molly Harwood, just sweet sixteen, 
arrived in apple-blossom time. Her brothers, Peter and 
Eleazar, must have helped things along in a social way, for 
two years after Molly Harwood's ride to Bennington Centre 
she became the mistress of Smedley cottage in Williamstown. 
Their first child, Levi Smedley, was born October 8, 1764, and 



212 



The Hoosac Valley 



upon his eighth birthday Nehemiah Smedley had a "raising 
bee" at which the Harwoods and other Bennington boys 




Six Representative Sons of Freedom, five of ivhom were born at Bennington, 
New Hampshire Grants, between iy62-i'/yy. Beoinning on left of seated row a*^- 
pear: Benjamin Hanvood, first child born in Bennington, January 2, 1/62, d. 
January 22, 1851; Abisha Kingsley, born March 18, I/66, died August g, iSjq: 
Aaron Robinson, born Alay 4, 1768, died August 10. 184Q; Samuel Safford, born in 
Sunderland, Massachusetts, June 24, 1761 , died September 11, iSji. Beginning 
on left of standing row appear: David Robinson, born July ij, 1777 , died March 
75, i8j8; Samuel Fay, born August 16, 1772, died December 25, 1863. The latter 
was five years of age at the time the Battle of Bennington was fought. 

hoisted into position the white oak timbers of his Green 
River Mansion, ^ now known as the Benjamin Bridges Place. 

The six pioneer famiHes arrived at Bennington Centre, 
June 18, 1 761, and were followed by thirty other families 

' See illustration, Chapter VIII. 



Samuel Robinson and Historic Bennington 213 

before Christmas, including Samuel Robinson, Sr., and John 
Fassett from Hardwick; Elisha Field, Samuel Montague, 
Experience Richardson, and Jonathan Scott from Sunder- 
land; James Breakenridge, Ebenezer Wood, Samuel and 
Oliver Scott, Joseph Wickwire, and Samuel At wood from 
Ware neighborhood, Mass.; and Joseph Safford, John 
Smith, John Bumham, Jr., Benajah Rood from Newint (Old 
Norwich) Ct., and others. Benjamin Harwood was the first 
child bom in the town, January 2, 1762, and was eighty- 
nine years old at the time of his death in 1851. 

The first proprietors' meeting took place February 11, 
1762, and Capt. Samuel Robinson, Sr., and John Fassett 
were respectively chosen moderator and clerk. At an ad- 
journed meeting held February 20th, it was voted to lay out 
a meeting-house plot of three acres, including a burial-field. 
The town records between 1762 and 1794 ^^^ still to be 
found on a few yellow pages, eight inches square, in the 
first book of Bennington County Clerk's Office, 

After the admittance of fifty families, the town-meeting 
was held at Landlord John Fassett's Tavern, Wednesday 
March 31, 1762. Samuel Montague was chosen moderator; 
Moses Robinson, vSr., clerk; Deacon Joseph Safford, treas- 
urer; Samuel Montague, Moses Scott, James Breakenridge, 
Benajah Rood, and Joseph Wickwire, selectmen; Samuel 
Robinson, Jr., and John Smith, Jr., constables; Deacon 
Joseph Safford and Elisha Field, tithing-men; Peter Har- 
wood and John Smith, Jr., hay-wards; Samuel Atwood and 
Samuel Pratt, fence-viewers; Timothy Pratt and Oliver 
Scott, deer-rifts. 

During June, 1762, it was voted to grant a mill-lot of five 
acres and forty dollars to build a grist-mill and saw^-mill, 
and Capt. Samuel Robinson, Sr., and Deacon Joseph Safford 
agreed to build the mills before January, 1 763. The grist-mill 
occupied the east bank of the Walloomsac, near the comer 



214 * The Hoosac Valley 

of Beech and Main streets; and the saw-mill stood on the 
west bank, near the corner of Main and Morgan streets. 
The mill-dam on the South Branch of the Walloomsac is 
known as Benton Pond to-day. The miller was allowed 
three quarts toll for every bushel of com or wheat ground — 
a pint more than any other miller of Hoosac Valley was I 
allowed. Lieut. William Henry built a grist-mill and store 
at "Irish Corners," now Riverside, about 1769; and the 
Tory, Joseph Haviland, ran another grist-mill on Haviland ' 
Brook, now Paran Creek, at North Bennington. During 
1775, Eldad Dewey, son of Parson Dewey, built a grist- 1 
mill and saw-mill at the junction of Dewey Brook with the 
Walloomsac, northwest of Dewey homestead on West Main 
Street, east of Bennington Hill. 

Deacon Samuel Robinson, Sr., was a large landowner in 1 
Pownal and Shaftsbury. He entertained pioneers desiring ' 
to purchase farms and avoided mixing creeds, the prime 
cause that broke up the First Congregational Church of 
Adams. He managed to ascertain the religious views of ; 
buyers, and if they proved Strict Congregationalists, he 
invited them to settle in Bennington; but if they advocated 
the Baptist creed of the "Warren Society," he sent them 
to Shaftsbury. It was jocosely said that if they expressed 
no faith whatever, he advised them to settle in Pownal. 

The First Church of Bennington was organized from 
excommunicants of five "Old Light" churches of Massa- 
chusetts and Connecticut. John Montague was deacon of 
the First Church of Sunderland, Mass., founded in 181 8. 
He preserved a record, dated March 3, 1749, revealing that 
several members held the "New Light" Doctrine, and fifteen 
of the "New Lights" w^ere excommunicated. Four of those 
men, including Samuel Montague, son of Deacon Montague, 
moved to Bennington in 1761. 

The first log meeting-house built within the limits of 



Samuel Robinson and Historic Bennington 215 

Bennington was organized by the Rev, Ithamar Hibbard,i 
on Hibbard's lot, on the slope of Mount Anthony, during 
the spring of 1762. He adopted the "New Light System" 
of the Rev. Ebenezer Frothingham of Middletown Church 




The First Church of Christ, Bennington Centre, New Hampshire Grants, 
now Vermont. It was begun in the spring of lydj and completed interiorly before 
the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1J76. The Bennington Strict Con- 
gregational Church was organised from five distinct Separatist Churclies from 
Massachusetts and Connecticut, December 3, lydz-i^gO. 

of Connecticut, advocating the Baptist Creed of the mission- 
ary, the Rev. Obed Warren, founder of the "Warren Society" 
of Warren, Rhode Island, in 1767. 

A later record states that: "The Church of Christ from 
Hardwick and the Church of Christ from Sunderland met 
together, and after prayers agreed upon and voted: 'That 
said Churches join together and become One Body or Church 
of Christ in Bennington.' " 

' The members of Hibbard's Strict Separatist Church united with Dewey's 
Bennington Centre Church in 1796. 



2i6 The Hoosac Valley 

The meeting-house plot and burial-field of three acres was 
laid out, and on May 9, 1763, it was voted to raise a tax of 
$6.00 on each settling-lot in town amounting to $384.00, to 
build a meeting-house, schoolhouse, mills, roads, and bridges. 
The meeting-house stood midway between the site of the 
present Congregational Church and Walloomsac Inn. It 
was 40 X 50 feet in size, with an added porch twenty feet 
square. The second story of the latter was used as a school- 
room. The building had three doors; the porch door faced 
east and led to the pulpit; and the north and south doors 
led to the centre aisle. A tier of square pews was laid out 
on each side of the centre aisle, with wall tiers in the rear. 
The pulpit was surmounted by an arched sounding board. 

Although the meeting-house was begun in the early spring 
of 1763, the interior was not completed until previous to 
the Declaration of Independence. The first minister. Rev. 
Jedidiah Dewey from Westfield, Mass., was installed, August 
14, 1763. The members of the Westfield Church and several 
Separatists from the Hardwick, Sunderland, and Old Nor- 
wich parishes united with the Bennington Church. Parson 
Dewey adopted the "New Light System" of Fathers Alex- 
ander Miller and Paul Park of the Plainfield and Preston 
Separate churches of Connecticut. Fathers Marshall and 
Palmer of the Canterbury and Windsor Separate churches 
of Connecticut were present at Dewey's installation. The 
original fifty-seven members' in 1763 included the names of 
thirty-two men and twenty -five women, as follows: 

George Abbott Jonathan Eastman 

George Abbott, Jr. John Fassett 

James Breakenridge Daniel Fay 

William Breakenridge James Fay 

David Doane James Fay, Jr. 

' Isaac Jennings, Memorials of a Century, pp. 33-34. 



Samuel Robinson and Historic Bennino;ton 217 



Elisha Field 
Jacob Fisk 
Benjamin Harwood 
Eleazar Harwood 
Zachariah Harwood 
Aaron Leonard 
Samuel Montague 
Samuel Pratt 
Jedidiah Rice 
Oliver Rice 
John Roberts 

Martha Abbott 
Rebecca Abbott 
Pearce Atwood 
Bethial Burnham 
Elizabeth Fay 
Lydia Fay 
Mehitable Fay 
Elizabeth Fisk 
Bridget Harwood 
Elizabeth Harwood 
Martha Montague 
Mercy Newton 

Martha 



Samuel Robinson 
Silas Robinson 
Joseph Safford 
Simeon Sears 
Jonathan Scott 
Jonathan Scott, Jr. 
Elijah Story 
Stephen Story 
Samuel Tubbs 
Benjamin Whipple 
Ichobod Stratton 

Baty Pratt 
Elizabeth Pratt 
Hannah Rice 
Experience Richardson 
Elizabeth Roberts 
Mercy Robinson 
Ann Safford 
Elizabeth Scott 
Eleanor Smith 
Sarah Story 
Hepzibah Whipple 
Prudence Whipple 
Wickwire 



After the outbreak of the Revolution the military line 
separating the district of Capt. Elijah Dewey's West Com- 
pany from that of Capt. Samuel Robinson's East Company 
ran north and south over Bennington Hill, Among the 
old historic homesteads of these districts may be mentioned 
Parson Dewey's Parsonage at the Centre, built in 1763, 
known to-day as the "E. H. Swift Place," the birthplace of 
Mrs. E. H. Swift in March, 181 8. The Eldad Dewey 
Mansion, built in 1775 on West Main Street in Bennington, 
proved a refuge for settlers fleeing ahead of Burgoyne's 



i 



2i8 The Hoosac Valley 

army on the rainy night of August 15, 1777, before the Battle 
of Bennington. One woman begged her husband to flee 
for safety, but he heroically replied that "she and his children 
would be better off if he were slain on the field than to have 
a coward for a husband and father." The reverse was also 
overheard when a man complained of a severe colic to his 
wife. Her woman's wit told her that it was not so much 
colic as cowardice, and she urged him bravely forward. 

The Elnathan Hubbell Mansion was built in 1769. After 
the raising of the huge timbers, Parson Dewey proposed a 
wedding, and Joseph Rudd and Sarah Story knelt at the 
rude altar and were pronounced one. The Nathaniel Fill- 
more house stood near Hubbell homestead, where Nathaniel 
Fillmore, Jr., was bom. He migrated to western New York 
in 1800 and became the father of Millard Fillmore, President 
of the United States in 1 850. The Joseph Wickwire house 
stood on the site of the lodge house of James Colgate Park ; 
the Phineas Scott house, built in 1776, still stands a mile 
west of the Battle Monument, occupied by the venerable 
granddaughters of the builder. The "Crosier Place," once 
the Benjamin Fay homestead, is now marked by poplar 
trees; and Lieut. Samuel Safford's homestead on Main 
Street in East Bennington is the residence of William R. 
Morgan, a lineal descendant of Deacon Joseph Safford of 
Bennington, Parson Cotton Mather of Boston, and Col. 
William Williams, "Father of Pittsfield" and founder ot 
Bennington. 

Isaac Tichenor of Newark, N.J. built his mansion on Mount 
Anthony Road, west of Capt. Elijah Dewey's Walloomsac 
Inn, in 1792, and his portrait still graces its parlor wall. He 
was graduated from Princeton College in 1775, and was, in 
1777, Deputy Commissary of the Provincial Army under 
Capt. Jedidiah Williams of Williamstown, Mass. Owing 
to his elegant manners and fluent speech, he was known by 



Samuel Robinson and Historic Bennington 219 

the Green Mountain Boys as the "Jersey Shck." He 
became a lawyer and was subsequently Governor of Vermont 
for ten successive years, dying in 1838 at the age of eighty- 
four. The bell in the old Congregational Church tower 
was presented in memory of Parson Absalom Peters, ''Father 
of Home Missions," by the venerable Governor Tichenor 
before his death. 

Gen. David Robinson's homestead, at the head of the 
Parade, was built in 1796, and descended to the late George 
Wadsworth Robinson — now the residence of his son and 
daughter. The mansion contains an invaluable collection 
of Revolutionary relics, including Col. Frederick Baum's 
sword and camp-kettle, together with the sword and con- 
tinental hat worn by Gen. David Robinson during the Battle 
of Bennington. 

Three out-lying districts in Bennington were settled pre- 
vious to 1777, including "Irish Corners," now Riverside, at 
Henry's Bridge; Haviland's Mills, known later as "Sage's 
City," now North Bennington; and Safford's Mills, known 
later as Algiers and "Crow Town," now Bennington Village. 

"Irish Corners" was settled in 1762 by the grandsons 
of the Scotch-Irish pioneers from Coleraine and London- 
derry, who landed at Boston in 1718, including Lieut. 
William Henry, a kinsman of the patriotic Patrick Henry of 
Virginia, Lieut. James Breakenridge, the Hendersons, the 
Clarkes, and Col. Seth Warner. The Henry and Warner 
homesteads were raised on the same day in 1 769 ; the Henry 
house was remodelled during 1797, and the Warner house 
burned fifty-four years ago; and Warner's farm is known as 
the " Gibbs's Place." The Breakenridge homestead stood 
a few rods east of the Warner house and descended to his 
grandson, John Breakenridge. He resided there until it 
burned, about 1884. The farm is known to-day as the 
Michael Leonard Place. 



220 The Hoosac Valley 

The hamlet of Haviland's Mills was settled by the Tory, 
Joseph Haviland. He owned a tract of the Walloomsac 
Patent, granted in 1739, which overlapped Bennington on 
New Hampshire Grants, considerably east of the Twenty- 
Mile Line to Haviland Brook, now Paran Creek in North 
Bennington. Haviland's grist-mill stood on the site of the 
present Paran Creek grist-mill, and his manorial homestead 
occupied the site between the residences of Franklin Scott 
and Albert Hathaway. About 1776, Moses Sage, a kinsman 
of Russell Sage, the late financier, and James Rogers settled 
in the hamlet. Young Sage married the Tory miller's 
daughter. 

Before the Battle of Bennington, the Council of Safety 
sold all of Tory Haviland's manor at auction to Moses 
Robinson. He invited settlers after the Revolution, and 
sold the land to William Haviland, Moses Sage, and James 
Rogers. He signed their deeds "Robinson, Town of Ben- 
nington, Province of New York," until the Vermont Line 
was confirmed in 18 12. The present Paran Creek grist- 
mill was built by Edward Welling in 1833, ^^^ Haviland's 
millstone, which on the day and night of August 16, 1777, 
was grinding com for Stark's army, is now doing duty as 
window-caps on Welling's mill, facing the car line. 

Moses Sage founded an iron forge near the site of Lyons's 
knitting mills, the first in Vermont, after which the hamlet 
of Haviland's Mills became known as "Sage's City." Iron 
ore was first mined at the foot of Shaftsbury Mountain. 
When this source of supply was exhausted, a new mine was 
located in Captain Shields's District in East Bennington and 
Woodford, where Moses Sage and his son-in-law, Giles Olin, 
set up a blast furnace, about 1804. 

Shaftsbury was chartered by Gov. Benning Wentworth to 
several Rhode Island settlers in 1761, including Dr. Daniel 
Huntington, George Niles, and other staunch Whigs. 

' Also Shaftsbury. 



Samuel Robinson and Historic Bennington 221 

George Niles, parent of the White Creek Niles family, lived 
to be one hundred and fourteen years old. Upon his century 
birthday he took a scythe and mowed a swath in the meadow, 
after which he stood erect and said to his sons : "There, boys, 
is a pattern for you!" He was the local historian, and rich 
in legends of past generations. He descended from Old 
Jonathan and Dame Niles, the parents of fourteen sons, who 
Lsettled in Braintree, Mass., in 1636. The Tory Elder, 
P)enjamin Hough, first minister of the Shaftsbury Baptist 
Church, founded in 1768, was punished with the "Twigs 
of the Wilderness" after the Battle of Bennington and 
banished. 

The First Baptist Church of Pownal Centre was founded 
by Rhode Island Whigs, and among the founders were Dr. 
Caleb Gibbs, Elder Benajah Grover, and others. Elder 
Caleb Nichols of the Exeter Separate Church was installed 
first minister in 1 788 ; and Captain Ovitt built the meeting- 
house in 1789, remodelled as the Union Church to-day. 
Elder Nichols died in 1804, and upon his monument in the 
burial-field north of the church is inscribed : 

Sacred to the memory of faithful service as a Minister 
and Watchman over the First Baptist Church of Pownal. 

The Scotch-Irish, led by Elder Freeborn Garretson, 
founded the First Methodist Episcopal Society in Benning- 
ton in 1792, although their meeting-house was not dedicated 
until 1833 by the Rev. Buel Goodsell. During 1834, Strict 
Congregationalism was disestablished in New England, and 

r Deacon Joseph Hinsdill of the First Church of Bennington 
and several members of Calvin's Society separated from the 
Old Church and built the First Presbyterian Church at Hins- 

[dillville in 1838, now owned by the Methodist Society. 

Among the historic tavern stands of Bennington may be 
mentioned John Fassett's Tavern, built in 1762. Capt. 



222 



The Hoosac Valley 



Elijah Dewey, eldest son of Parson Dewey, built the Wal- 
loomsac Inn in 1 766. It is the oldest tavern to-day in Vermont 
and has been doing duty for over one hundred and forty-five 
years. Stephen Fay from Hardwick, Mass., also built 




The Walloomsac Inn, built in 1766 by Landlord Elijah Dewey, eldest son of 
Parson Jedidiah Dewey, First Mhtister oj the Old First Church, which stood east 
of Dewey's Inn. Landlord Dewey was Captain of the West Bennington Com- 
pany in the Battle of Bennington. The Walloomsac Inn is the oldest inn to-day 
in Vermont. It has been doing duty as a tavern for over one hundred and forty- 
five years. 



the Green Mountain Inn in 1766. It became a rallying 
place for Captain Fassett's Company of Green Mountain 
Boys, organized in 1764. On May 14, 1766, it was decided 
to lay out the Parade, and three acres were voted to widen 
Main Street between the First Church and Deacon Samuel 
Safford's Mansion, on the present site of Battle Monument 
Park. A huge catamount was stuffed and mounted twenty- 
five feet high on the sign-post of Fay's Green Mountain 



Samuel Robinson and Historic Bennington 223 

Inn, and it became known as the famous " Catamount 
Tavern." The quaint hip-roofed building burned in 1871, 
and on its site now stands a granite pedestal, surmounted 




The Harmon Inn, built by Sergt. Daniel Harmon before the Revolution. It 
is know?i as the " Old Yellow House " and is located two miles west of the Battle 
Monument, near New York Line. Gen. John Stark and his officers are reported 

' to have breakfasted at Harmon's Inn on their march doiun the Walloomsac to 

■ meet Colonel Baum's Army, August ij, 1777. 



by a bronze figure of a grinning catamount, facing west- 
ward toward the Yorkers. 

The Hendrick Schneider Tavern on Schneider's Patent, 
New York, was built over two miles west of the site of the 
First Church of Bennington in the spring of 1762. Later 
Col. Samuel Herrick ran the place, and General Stark and his 
army encamped in the field east of Herrick's Inn, between Au- 
gust 9th and 13th, 1777, previous to the Battle of Bennington. 
Herrick's Tavern was later known as Dimmick's Stand, now 



224 The Hoosac Valley 

the site of the residence of Otis Warren, a descendant of 
Dr. John Warren, who married a granddaughter of Hen- 
drick Schneider. The Harwood Tavern was built by Zac- 
hariah Harwood on the site of the Battle Monument, known 
later as Jonathan Robinson's State Arms House. It con- 
tained a ''copious magazine" of the Provincial Army in 
^111 ^ guarded by Capt. Eli Nobles's Company of Pownal 
Boys. The Harmon Inn, known to-day as the "Old Yellow 
House," two miles west of the Battle Monument, was built 
by Sergt. Daniel Harmon before the Revolution. General 
Stark, August 13, 1777, breakfasted at this tavern on his 
march down the Walloomsac to his North Farm encampment. 
The gaping windows and front door reveal quaint fireplaces 
and a stairway unchanged except by ravages of time. The 
Walbridge homestead at Walbridgeville and Tory Matthews's 
State Line Tavern were built after the Revolution, about 
1783. The portraits of Landlord Matthews and his wife 
formerly hung upon the parlor wall. They were loaned for 
an Historical Exhibition, and never returned to Charles 
B. Allen, the present proprietor of the place. 

Several inns stood between Bennington Centre and 
Pownal Centre before the Revolution. Billings's Tavern 
was built by Maj. Samuel Billings on the Old Road south of 
The Poplars, known later as Lon Wagner's Inn and the 
"Old Yellow House" until it was burned a few years ago. 
The Brush Tavern, east of the site of Billings's Tavern, was 
built by Nathaniel Brush, colonel of the regiment of Vermont 
Volunteers. It is known to-day as the "Nichols Place," 
the residence of Samuel Jewett, owner of the serpentine 
Jewett Brook. The Mallery Tavern, a mile north of Pownal 
Centre Green, was built by Whittum Mallery and was sub- 
sequently known as the Timothy Munson Stand. The 
Pownal Centre Tavern, south of the First Baptist Church, 
now Union Church, is similar to Col. Benjamin Simonds's 



Samuel Robinson and Historic Bennington 225 

River Bend Tavern in Williamstown. It was probably 
built by his son-in-law, Ithamar Clark. Here his son, 
"Billa" J. Clark, dispensed cider brandy over the bar to the 
Pownal bumpkins until he became disgusted with his occu- 




■i-»»>4 



The State Line Tavern built by the Tory Matthews about 1783 is located in 
three towns: White Creek and Hoosac in Rensselaer and Washington Counties in 
New York Stale; and the tow7i of Shaftsbury in Bennington County in the Stale 
of Vermont. The historic inn is now the residence of Charles B. Allen, a lineal 
descendant of Geti. Ira Allen, nephew and adopted son of Ira Allen, Secretary of 
the famous Council of Safety held at the Catamount Tavern during the Revolution. 

pation and studied medicine with Dr. Caleb Gibbs. He 
later moved to Moreau, N. Y., where, in 1801, he founded the 
first Temperance Society in the United States and later 
organized the Saratoga Medical Society, the first in the State 
of New York. The Clark Tavern was afterwards known 
as Willard Bates's Inn, now the Barber Thompson Place. 
The Daniel Kimball Inn, on the comer of the Centre and 
North Pownal roads, was built at a much later day and has 
been occupied by the successive town clerks for nearly three 
15 



226 The Hoosac Valley 

quarters of a century. The Pownal Charter, signed b^ 
Governor Wentworth in 1760, is the most ancient document 
on file in the iron safe built into the fireplace of the south 
room of the inn. 

A weekly letter post was established between Boston, 
Hartford, Salisbury, Williamstown, and Bennington as ear]\ 
as 1763, and Gov. Thomas Chittenden of Vermont organized 
a regular postal servix:e between Albany and Boston to 
Bennington, Rutland, Newbury, Brattleboro, and Windsor 
in 1783 and 1784. Anthony Haswell came from Portsmouth, 
Eng., in 1756. He was appointed postmaster-general in 
1784. The post-office was located on the present site of the 
Battle Monument, in the same building as the office of The 
Vermont Gazette, which he edited. The printer, Nathaniel 
Russell, issued the first copy of The Vermont Gazette, June 5, 
1783. It was the first newspaper published in Vermont ns 
well as in the Hoosac Valley, and Haswell's grandsons con- 
tinued to publish the paper for sixty-seven years, until i84g, 
when it changed hands and was issued under its present title. 
The Bennington Banner. 

Among the schools of Revolutionary days may be men- 
tioned Clio Hall, incorporated November 3, 1 780, and built on 
the comer south of the First Church. It was opened under 
the rectorship of Eldad Dewey, Jr., a grandson of Parson Jedi- 
diah Dewey. The most distinguished pupil was Zephaniah 
Swift Moore, a son of Judah Moore of Wilmington, Vt. 
He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1797 and became 
President of Williams College between 1815 and 1821. 
Clio Hall for boys burned in 1803. Elinor Read, a daughter 
of the famous missionary-author. Read, from Chelsea, Mass., 
opened a school for girls in 1802 in the house south of the 
Brick Academy. The Legislature in 1787 divided the towns 
of the Green Mountain State into school districts. At the 
opening of 1807 there were twenty-five grammar schools and 



Samuel Robinson and Historic Bennington 227 

academies incorporated in Vermont, including the Scientific 
and Literary School established at North Bennington in 
1805 by William S. Crandall, a graduate of Williams College. 
One of the distinguished pupils proved to be Col. Olin Scott 
of Bennington. 

Safford's Mills, now Bennington Village, contained less 
than twenty buildings in 1804 between Eldad Dewey's 
house and Safford's Mill. The cabinet-maker, John Rich- 
mond, opened a shop and christened the settlement "Al- 
giers," He had been a sailor on a trading vessel off the coast 
of Africa before the War of Algiers. Stark's Inn was built 
about the same time near Searls's tailor-shop and Stephen 
Pratt's house on Main Street and Captain Hill's Crow Tavern 
at Hunt Place. A maple grove occupied the banks of the 
Walloomsac, where crows assembled to hold their councils of 
safety, from which arose the name "Crow Town" for the 
hamlet. The Councils of Safety of the Green Mountain 
Boys met at Crow Tavern during the War of 18 12 and until 
the close of the Civil War in 1865. 

Thomas W. Trenor arrived in Bennington during 181 1 and 
purchased the blast furnace and iron works of Moses Sage 
and Giles Olin. Sage moved to Western Pennsylvania and 
built the first blast furnace in that State. Trenor was origin- 
ally a ship-builder in Dublin and treasurer of the Society 
of United Irishmen. He and other members were arrested, 
July, 12, 1798, at Oliver Bond's house on Lower Bridge 
Street, and lodged in Dublin Castle. All were hanged except 
Trenor, who made his escape disguised as a dead man in a 
coffin. After locating in Bennington he built his homestead 
in Furnace Grove, to-day known as the "Shield Place," and 
felled the forest about Camp Comfort and Trenor Meadow, in 
the Glastonbury and Woodford passes, to feed his yawning 
furnaces. The blacksmith, Captain Frye, Caleb More, 
Matthew and Zerah Scott settled later at "Trenor Mead- 



228 The Hoosac Valley 

ows." Woodford, although chartered in 1753, remained 
a dense forest dotted with lakes until Thomas W. Trenor and 
J. S. Hollister developed the iron, clay, and ochre industries 
at "Woodford City." Luther and Cynthia Pratt-Park 
were also among the first proprietors and named their son 
Trenor W. Park, after Thomas W. Trenor. He was destined 
to become a distinguished jurist in California, and accumu- 
lated a vast fortune. He returned later to his native Wal- 
loomsac Valley. 

At the time the dam of the first furnace was built in 
"Woodford City," the horns of an elk weighing sixty pounds 
were unearthed, proving that at some remote period both 
elk and moose roamed through the Green Mountain passes, 
where now wander the deer. 

After the advent of Trenor in Algiers Village in 181 1 the 
population increased. The tailor, Faxon, opened a shop near 
Eldad Dewey's homestead; Captain Abell and Jos. Norton 
operated cider brandy distilleries, and the latter opened a 
pottery and manufactured chums, butter-jars, and other 
earthern wares. Sandford and Brown established the first 
foundry in the State, on the present site of Henry W. 
Putnam's grist-mill, and Buckley Squires built the stone 
blacksmith's shop still in use to-day. 

After the outbreak of the War of 1812, the grandsons of 
the veterans of the Battle of Bennington faced the British 
at Plattsburgh, on Lake Champlain. The cannonading was 
faintly heard by the Benningtonians in 18 14, but the peace 
of the Walloomsac and Hoosac was not disturbed, and hos- 
tilities closed in 1815. 

One of the oldest marked tombstones in English Hoosac 
is that of Jan C. N. Lon, located in the centre of the front 
tier of graves in the Pownal Centre Burial-field. He was 
buried in 1742, eighteen years before the town was chartered 
to the English in 1760. Lon was a Dutch burgher and 



Samuel Robinson and Historic Bennington 229 

evidently a kinsman of Landlord Lon Wagner of Billings's 
Tavern. 

In the Bennington Burial-field, east of the First Church, 
lies the historic dust of the founders of the Green Mountain 
Republic, including four of the governors: Moses Robinson, 
John Robinson, Isaac Tichenor, and Hiland Hall. Near the 
^,omb of Isaac Tichenor is located the grave of John Van Der 
Speigal, the Dutch inventor of stoves and furnaces; and in 
the centre of the cemetery m.ay be observed a granite pedes- 
tal reared by the Daughters of the Revolution to mark the 
last resting place of the wounded Hessian prisoners who died 
after the Battle of Bennington. The epitaph of Parson 
Jedidiah Dewey, first minister of Bennington, attracts the 
wonder of hero worshippers. He was a Shakespearean 
scholar, and his favorite and oft-quoted lines from a scene 
of Richard II., were chiselled upon his tombstone: 

Let 's talk of graves, of worms, and Epitaphs; 
Make dust our paper, and with rainy eyes 
Write sorrow on the bosom of the earth. 



CHAPTER XI 

OLD HOOSAC FALLS AND PETERSBURGH NEIGHBORHOOD 

1759-1815 

The thousand changes that thicken along the links of recollection, throw back 
the origin of the nation to a day so distant as seemingly to reach the mists of time. 

James Fenimore Cooper, The Deerslayer. 

German Lutheran Church — Schneider Patent — Witchcraft — Col. Francis J. Van 
Pfister's White House Manor — Kreiggcr Rocks — Breese, Pool, and Fonda 
Neighborhood — Rensselaer's Mills — Little Hoosac — Nepimore — Maple- 
ton — Falls Quequick — St. Croix — Pcsth and Walloomsac Hamlets — 
MiHtary Districts — Invasion of British, 1777 — Town-Meetings, 1789 — 
Inns — Slaves — Baptist, Methodist, and Adventist Churches — Peters- 
burgh — Grafton — Berlin — Tibbits's Mansion of Hoosac — War of 1812 — 
Militia. 

AFTER the Fall of Quebec the Dutch Patroons of Hoosac 
and Rensselaerwyck rebuilt their manorial buildings 
and invited a mixed tenantry. The Brunswick Colony of 
German Lutherans, located in the Hoosacs' Lake District 
of Rensselaerwyck in 1760, included the staunch names: 
Benn, Coon, Clum, Cropsey, Cross, Frett, Fischer, File, 
Goeway, Hayner, Hardwick, Miiller, Gothout, Van Arnam, 
Watson, and Quackenbosch. 

Several of these Germans settled later about the junction 
of the Hoosac with the Little Hoosac, and they founded the 
first Lutheran Church ' during the Revolution on the south- 
east comer of Hoosac Road, east of Petersburgh Four 
Corners. The late Daniel Brimmer, as a child of seven, 
attended school in the old meeting-house in 1805, taught 

' A Dutch Reformed Church. 

230 



Old Hoosac Falls and Petersburgh 231 

by Mrs. Thurber and Miss Davis. Many unmarked graves 
were located around and beneath the church, all traces of 
which were levelled by the plough over half a century ago. 

The Old Dutch Church remained the only place of public 
worship for the homesteaders of Hoosac and Rensselaerwyck 
until long after the War of 18 12. The family Bible of Oldert 
Onderkirk of Fort Half-Moon, traditionally printed in 1636, 
descended to Jacob Onderkirk, occupying the farm, now 
known as the C.E. Stockwell Place, a mile north of the "White 
House Bridge." It is the oldest known Bible in Hoosac Val- 
ley, and half a century ago descended to Mrs. C. W. Brown 
of Hoosac Falls, a granddaughter of the Dutch burgher, 
Jacob Onderkirk, and the English pilgrim, Elijah Wallace. 

Several Dutch and German tenants of Rensselaerwyck 
"squatted" in Pownal on N. H. Grants between 1724 and 
1760, including: Hogg and Voseburgh (Vose) families on the 
site of Green Brimmer farm; Best on the Ichobod Paddock 
and Silas Eldred farms; Bastian Van Deel, Petrus Bovie, 
and Pitt Van Hogleboom later on the Voseburgh farm, 
known to-day as the Thomas Brownell Place near the State 
Line Bridge. Juria Kreigger settled north of Kreigger Rocks 
at North Pownal and built a grist-mill near the site of the 
Silas Paddock residence. The Van Norman, Westenhouse, 
and Varin families settled later in Kreigger neighborhood; 
and the Fischer, Anderson, and Young famiHes located at 
Three Corners and "Weeping Rocks" farther up the valley. 

Daniel Brimmer remembered Juria Kreigger in 1805 as 
a brick-burner and miller. In 1760, when Pownal was 
chartered to the English, Henry Young, Schorel Marters 
Watson, Long Andries, John Spencer, the Devoet and Van 
Arnam families resided east of the adopted New York Line 
in New England. 

Hendrick Schneider (Snyder) of New Lebanon Flats, a part 
of Stephentown, N. Y., together with John Watteck, Hendrick 



232 The Floosac Valley 

Lake, John Johnson, Garret Williamson, Nathaniel Archerly, 
Benjamin Abbott, William Taylor, Martinus Voorheres of 
New Jersey, and Daniel Hellenbeck of Albany, petitioned 
Governor De Lancey, July 8, 1761, for 10,000 acres lying east 
of Hoosac Patent, extending from Rensselaerwyck northward 
to the Walloomsac Patent. Schneider's Patent was con- 
firmed by Lieut. Governor Golden, March 24, 1762, and 
Schneider proved the first settler. The Patent was bounded 
on the east by "other vacant lands," as Lieut. Governor 
Golden denied the validity of Governor Wentworth's char- 
ters of the English towns of Bennington and Pownal. 

Upon the arrival of Gapt. Seth Hudson, Gent., and other 
proprietors of Pownal, a meeting was held in June, 1760, 
when it was voted to grant the Dutch miller, Kreiggcr, 
"one right." His son, Hans Kreigger, died five years later, 
and the " intollerable inquisitiveness " and "unparalleled 
volluability " of the Rhode Island Baptists charged widow 
Kreiggcr with witchcraft. She was allowed the choice of 
two tests to prove her innocence. She could choose between 
climbing a tree or being immersed through the ice in the 
river. If upon felling the tree or upon sinking to the river 
bottom, she was not killed outright, she was promised her 
freedom. She chose the latter test as the safer and was 
finally recovered from drowning. The verdict of the Com- 
mittee of Safety was that: "If widow Kreigger had been a 
witch, the powers infernal would have supported her." 
Her three sons, John, Peter, and William Kreigger, were 
invited by the Williamstown proprietors, October 15, 1767, 
to build a grist-mill near the junction of Hopper Brook with 
Green River. They intermarried with the Young and 
Deeming families and became members of the First Con- 
gregational Church of Williamstown. 

After the close of the French and Indian War, many 
British officers and soldiers drew military grants. The Tory, 



Old Hoosac Falls and Petersburgh 233 

Francis J. Van Pfister, ' commissioned a lieutenant in His 
Majesty's Sixtieth Regiment of Foot, September 18, 1760, by 
Gen. Jeffrey Amherst, drew 2000 acres in Nepimore Vale. 
He built his "White House " ^ near the present site of Tibbits's 
lodge, west of the "White House Bridge." Several other 
officers received grants overlapping Bennington and Shafts- 
bury on the New Hampshire Grants. 

Seventeen homesteaders of Hoosac and Rensselaerwyck 
manors resided between Van Pfister's "White House" and 
the junction of the Hoosacs in 1767. Jacob Onderkirk, a 
staunch Whig, resided a mile north of Tory Van Pfister's 
manor; and John Quackenbosch, Pieter Ostrander, William 
Helling, John Potter, John Palmer, Benjamin Walworth, 
Harper Rogers, John Ryan, Randall, James, and Samuel Cot- 
terel resided on the east bank of the Hoosac, at Hoosac Four 
Comers and Mapleton. Johannes De Fonda, Jan Huyck, 
the Knott, Robert, and other families resided at the base of 
De Fonda Hill, east of Barnardus Bratt's Mansion, near the 
site of Petersburgh Station; and the Van Derrick manor, 
half a mile south of Bratt's, was occupied by the Letchers', 
known later as Joseph Case Place, now the Edward Green 
estate. 

The Breese and Pool neighborhood, known as Rens- 
selaers' Mills during the Revolution, was located partly on 
Hoosac and partly on Rensselaerwyck manors. Henry 
I Breese from Greenbush built the Old Red Store in 1766, 
opposite Cornelius Letcher's Tavern, now the site of Eldred's 
Inn. Other tenantry of the hamlet included: Hendrick 
Letcher, Johannes De Ruyter, Petrus and Hans Bachus, 
Johannes McCagg, Hans Lautman, Barent Hogg, Johannes 
George Brimmer, and Jacob Best. 

' Cuyler Reynolds, Albany Chronicles, p. 264. 

^ The White House Manor originally belonged to the Schuylers. It de- 
scended to Colonel Van Pfister, who married a daughter of the Schuylers. 



234 



The Hoosac Valley 



Peter Simons, chief farm-master of Rensselaerwyck, Jacob 
O. Cropsey, and Godfrey Brimmer located on the upper 
Little Hoosac in Berlin about 1765. Brimmer built a log- 




. *..---.*»?."*£. 



i i 



4 1 i^t^ i I 




Eldred Inn, on the site of the Cornelius Letcher Tavern, where the first Town- 
Meeti?ig of Petersbiirgh was held, during Landlord Hezekiah Coons proprietor- 
ship, in March, ijgi. The Letcher Tavern was built about 1766, when the 
hamlet of Petersburgh Four Corners was known as the Breese and Pool Neigh- 
borhood. During Revolutionary days it bore the designation of Rensselaers' 
Mills, until incorporated Petersburgh in honor of Patroon Van Rensselaer's 
chief farm-master, Peter Simons, in 1791. 



cabin and shingled it with bark. He used linen-tow and 
oiled paper for window panes and carpeted his earthern 
floor with moonshine and ferns. Simons' s and Cropsey 's 
farms occupied the present site of the Daniel Hull farm. 
Between 1767 and the Battle of Bennington, Peter Simons's 
Road led over Cherry Plains to the Patroons' Mills at East 
Greenbush. At that time the Milk, Berry, and Douglass 
families resided in the neighborhood, and the Tory, Reuben 



I Old Hoosac Falls and Petersburgh 235 

1 Bonesteel, and his six sons, three of whom were Whigs, 
located near Godfrey Brimmer's farm in Berlin Hollow. 

Daniel Hull and Paul Braman arrived in 1770 from Con- 
necticut, and were the first English settlers in Little Hoosac. 
They were followed by Joseph Green in Green Hollow, a 
descendant of the Quaker, Gen. Nathaniel Green of Warwick, 
R. I., who drove the British from Boston; Colonel Bentley, 
Thomas Sweet, Daniel and James Dennison, Nathaniel 
Niles, Peleg Thomas, Simeon Himes, Joseph Whitford, and 
William Satterlee — pastor of the Seventh Day Baptist 
Church — and Dr. John Forbes. 

The Breese and Pool neighborhoods of Rensselacrs' Mills 
were settled by Presbyterians, Baptists of the Warren 
Society, and Adventists of the Hopkinton Society, including: 
Simeon Odell, Tory Dayfoot and his six sons in East Hollow, 
Stanton Bailey, Abraham and Augustus Lewis in Lewis 
Hollow, William Reynolds, Ichobod Prosser, Stephen Card, 
Gideon Clark, William Hiscox, Joseph Allen, James Weaver, 
and others. After the Battle of Bennington Patroon Van 
Rensselaer built a grist-mill on the site of the present mill 
in South Petersburgh, and another half a mile above the 
junction of the Hoosacs on the Alvin Brimmer farm in North 
Petersburgh. 

The Cornelius Letcher Tavern on the site of the Eldred 
Inn, and John Woodburn Tavern on the site of William 
Reynolds's residence, were the famous hostelriesof the North 
Village of Rensselaers' Mills during the Revolution. An inn 
on the site of the Aaron Worthington Tavern in the South 
Village, and the Daniel Hull Tavern in Little Hoosac, now 
Berlin, proved the headquarters for the Little Hoosac militia. 

The Rensselaer and Hoosac military districts were organ- 
ized, March 24, 1772. The boundary between Old Hoosac 
and Old Cambridge military districts in Walloomsac Valley 
remained indefinite until after the organization of the town- 



236 



The Hoosac Valley- 



ships in 1789. The Scotch-Irish settlers of St. Croix, Pcsth, 
Walloomsac, and Falls Quequick in Hoosac District included: 
Deacons Waldo and Goff , Maj. John Potter, Ephraim James, 
Samuel Clarke, John McClung, George Duncan, William 
Gilmore, William Eager, William Selfrage, Samuel Ball, 




The Old Red Mill of Little Hoosac Valley. The Mill is located midway h 
tween the North and South villages of Petersbtirgh, and was probably 
built during the Second Revolutionary days of 1812. 

John Scott, David Sprague, Seth Chase, John Harrow 
Thomas McCool, Simeon Fowler, John Young, Josia' 
Dewey, John Rhodes, and the Buell and Beebe families. 

In 1772, Elder William Waite and Deacons Waldo an 
Goff from Rhode Island founded the First Baptist Churc 
at Waite's Corners near St. Croix. The members included 
Samuel Hodge, Peter Sur Dam, Obadiah and Levi Beardsle) 
Isaac Bull, Mr. Biglow, Francis Bennett, Simeon Swee 
Thomas Sickles, and John Corey. The latter was a soldie 



Old Hoosac Falls and Petersburgh 237 

at Fort Massachusetts and a lineal descendant of the Baptist 
Elder, William Corey, of London, known as the "Father 
of British Foreign Missions," and founder of a Christian 
colony in India in 1798. Deacons Waldo and Goff objected 
to the tune of Old Hundred and in 1805 moved to the Ohio 
Valley to found a new church and sing new tunes. 

The Nepimore Vale, now known as "Shingle Hollow," was 
first settled by the hunter-scout, Joseph Guile, Samuel Still- 
well, Thomas Brown, David Case, Jonathan Mosely, and 
Silas Harrington. Once a Schaghticoke warrior attempted 
to scalp Guile, but lost his own life. Guile died in 1809, 
the same year that Nathaniel Bumppo-Schipman, known as 
the hunter-scout, "Leather-Stocking," died at Falls Que- 
quick. Guile's grave by the roadside near the site of his 
log cottage is marked by two moss-grown boulders. 

The Falls Quequick manor of Jacobus Van Cortlandt, 
New York City, contained a tract seven miles long by three 
and a half miles wide, having The Falls as its centre. The 
course of Hoosac Falls forms a perfect letter "S," as the river 
descends through the rocky gorge originally adorned with 
pine and oak. Augustus Van Cortlandt and Augustus 
Van Home, heirs of Jacobus Van Cortlandt, leased Jona- 
than Fuller the first farm on the manor in 1772 for twenty- 
one years. Isaac Turner and Joel Abbott from New London, 
Ct., later located at The Falls and opened a store and black- 
smith shop. Fuller's farm contained two hundred and 
twenty acres on the east bank. It began at a marked birch 
tree below The Falls and extended south to a point near 
J. R. Parsons's residence. It covered the site of the present 
village of Hoosac Falls. 

Jonathan Fuller died in 1790 and the sea-captain, Henry 
Northrup from Rhode Island purchased his farm. Fuller's 
log house still stood on the north end of his farm near the 
site of C. A. Cheney's residence, when Captain Northrup 



238 The Hoosac Valley 

built his log house on the hill overlooking Falls Quequick. 
A lane, opening near the site of Wood's Block, lead to Capt- 
ain Northrup's cottage. He died in 1797 and the "God's 
Acre" of Fuller and Northrup proved the first burial-field 
within the limits of Hoosac Falls Village. Judge Levi 
Chandler Ball purchased the Northrup Farm in 1833 and 
recorded in his Annals of Hoosac that he found several 
unmarked graves, fruit trees, and stone walls near the site 
of Fuller's and Northrup's dwellings. At the opening of 
1800, Henry Barnhart also owned two hundred and fifty 
acres on the east bank of Hoosac Falls, west of the present 
Main Street. 

The patroons of Dutch Hoosac manorlands during the 
Revolution included : Stephen Van Rensselaer of Rensselaer- 
wyck, born in New York City in 1764; Bamardus Bratt, 
known as the " Patroon of Hoosac" ; Augustus Van Cortlandt 
and Augustus Van Home of Falls Quequick ; Garret Cornelius 
Van Ness of St. Croix, and Philip Van Ness of Tioshokc. 
Their sons and daughters inherited thousand-acre farms, 
located along both banks of the Hoosac, between the Owl 
Kill and the headwaters of Little Hoosac. Young Stephen 
Van Rensselaer's Manor of Rensselaerwyck was superin- 
tended by chief farm-master, Peter Simons, until the "Anti- 
Rent War" and the adoption of the Federal Constitution 
and township system in New York. Bamardus Bratt le.'"t 
four sons and two daughters : Daniel B . and Garret Tunisson 
Bratt, located on farms at Hoosac Four Corners; Johannes 
Bratt at Buskirk Bridge; and Henry Bratt in Albany. 
Maria Bratt married Robert Lotteridge of Falls Quequick, 
and Elizabeth Bratt married her cousin, John Bratt, ofl 
Petersburgh Junction. Mrs. Samuel Gardner,' a lineal 
descendant of the "Patroon of Hoosac," resides on the Bratt 
homestead, although the Patroon's colonial Dutch-roofed 

'Granddaughter of Daniel B. Bratt. 




v. 

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<< "3 

o 






239 



240 The Hoosac Valley 

bams, located opposite the Gardner Mansion, burned a few 
years ago. The portraits of the Patroon Daniel B. Bratt and 
his wife, still hang on the parlor wall in the Gardner Man- 
sion and in the "God's Acre" near by lies the unmarked 
dust of the founders of Dutch Hooesac hamlet of 1732. 

The St. Croix Manor was occupied by four generations, 
descended from Patroon Van Ness, between 1724 and 1818. 
The homestead is now owned by Nicholas Hathaway — a 
grandson of Peter Gooding, a lineal descendant of Garret 
Cornelius Van Ness. The will of Cornelius Van Ness, son of 
the elder patroon, bears date, August 25, 1791, and he left 
the Van Ness Bible to his daughter, Sarah Van Ness, later 
the wife of Jacob Van Valkenburgh of Hoosac. It contains 
a "Memorandum of the Birth and Dying Days" of the Vrn 
Ness and Valkenburgh families. Alida Van Woerdt-Van 
Ness, wife of Patroon Cornelius Van Ness, died, May 24, 1 778, 
thirteen and a half years before himself. They left five 
sons and one daughter: Garret, Jacob, Johannes, Peter, 
Hendrick, and Sarah Van Ness. The Van Ness Eiblc 
descended to Edgar P. Ladd from his aunt, Sarah Van Valken- 
burgh, the seventh daughter of Sarah Van Ness-Van Valken- 
burgh. Edgar P. Ladd is a grandson of Henrietta Van 
Valkenburgh, fourth daughter of Sarah Van Ness and wife 
of Samuel Coon. Their daughter, Mary Coon, married 
Hiram Ladd and became the mother of Edgar P. Ladd 
of Salem, N. Y. 

After the firing of the first guns in the Battle of Lexington, 
Daniel Hull of Little Hoosac organized two companies of 
militia: one remained posted at Hull's Tavern in North 
Berlin and the other was engaged in active service. Several 
Tories resided in Dutch Hoosac. Lieut. Joseph Rudd' of 
Bennington, in a letter dated after the Battle of Bennington, 
records that "the greater part of Dutch Hoosac" joined 

' See Note 22 at end of volume. 



Old Hoosac Falls and Petersburgh 241 

i Peter's Corps of Loyalists under Col. Francis J. Van Pfister, 
posted at the Tory breastwork on Van Pfister's Hill. Capt. 

I Samuel Anderson of Pownal rallied a Tory Company, includ- 
ing Petrus Bovie, Bastian Van Deel, Francis Hogle, "Gad" 
Gardner, and others residing along the disputed Twent}^- 
Mile Line between New York and the New Hampshire 
Grants. 

Patroons Van Ness, Van Rensselaer, and Bamardus Bratt 

: left their manors in charge of faithful Negro slaves while 
their families removed to Albany during August, 1777. Two 
of Van Ness's slaves possessed both the Whig and Tory 
flags while guarding their master's wheat fields at St. Croix. 
They claimed that they could distinguish a Tory from a 
Whig as soon as they came into view, and so they hoisted 
whichever colors the occasion demanded. 

The Committee of Public Safety remained the "Beach- 
Seal Court" of Hoosac Valley for ten years after the Battle 
of Bennington, until plain Jonathan Smith of "Constitution 
Hill," Lanesboro, Mass., on the upper Hoosac, brought 
about the adoption of the Federal Constitution in 1788, 
through his speech to Congress. The first town-meeting 
of Hoosac took place on March 4, 1789, and the following 
officers were elected: 

Thomas Sickles .... Supervisor 

Zachariah Sickles . . . Town Clerk 

Jacob Van Ness 

Henry Breese 

Nicholas Snyder (Schneider) 

Reuben Thayer V Assessors 

Isaac Bull 

John Johnson 

Zachariah Sickles 



Henry Brown .... Collector 
16 






242 



The Hoosac Valley 



Thomas Sickles 
William Kerr 
Nicholas Snyder 

Henry Brown 
Squire Reed 
Henry Walker 
Samuel Latham 
James Williamson 
Henry Snyder 
John Van Buren 
Henry Breese 
John Van Ness 
Zachariah Sickles 
Godfrey Stark 
Ansel Gray 

Squire Reed 

Harper Rogers 

Timothy Graves 

Benjamin Waite 

John Millman 

Samuel Latham 

John Ryan 

Anthony Van Sur Dam 

Garret Van Home 

Isaac Lansing 

Daniel Rogers 

John Bo vie 

Godfrey Stark 

Jonathan Case 

Ezekiel Hodge 

Jonathan Moasby (Mosely) 

William Briggs 

WilHam Mellen, Jr. 

David Brown 

John Johnson 

Luke Frink 



" Overseers of the Poor 



Constables 



Fence-viewers 



Pound-keepers 



Path-masters 



Old Hoosac Falls and Petersburgh 243 

The first post-office of Hoosac was opened in 1783 at 
"Hoosick 4 Corners Inn," and a branch office was soon estab- 
lished at Falls Quequick, in Seth Parsons's machine-shop. 
Andrew Parsons, his ten-year-old-son, became the first mail- 
carrier. He took his oath of office by kissing the Old 
English Reader, owing to the scarcity of Bibles. 

After the adoption of the town-meeting government, better 
roads, bridges, and district schoolhouses were built. Among 
the historic covered bridges may be mentioned the State 
Line Bridge of the Hoosac Pass; the Little Hoosac Bridge at 
Petersburgh Four Comers; the White House Bridge on the 
the Nepimore Post Road, west of Hoosac Four Comers; 
Old Rainbow Bridge, a mile above Falls Quequick — later re- 
placed by the Hoosac Falls Bridge, built by J. Russell Parsons 
in 1 791 ; the St. Croix Bridge over the Little White Creek on 
Old Cambridge Turnpike; the Eagle Toll-Bridge; and Bus- 
kirk Bridge over the Hoosac near the junction of the Owl Kill. 

Dr. Thomas Hartwell from New London, Ct., in 1778 
was the first doctor to settle at Falls Quequick. He built 
his homestead, known as the Melina Wells Place, and later 
founded the first Federal Lodge, No. 33, of the Order of Free 
Masons, ' in 1793. Twelve years later he moved to the Ohio 
Valley. Dr. Salmon Moses of Norfolk, Ct,, meanwhile settled 
at Rensselaer Mills, now Petersburgh ; and Dr. Aaron Drake 
Patchin from New Lebanon, N. Y., arrived at Falls Quequick 
in 1799. Dr. Salmon Moses entered Dr. Patchin's office in 
1818 and succeeded to his practice, while his brother assumed 
charge of his Rensselaer Mills office in Little Hoosac Valley. 
During the same time Dr. Hugh Richey located at St. Croix 

' As early as December 20, 1767, Henry Andrew Francken, deputy grand 
inspector-general of masonry in North America, constituted Col. Francis J. 
Van Pfister of Hoosac, and Thomas Swords, Thomas Lynatt, and Richard 
Cartwright of Albany, into a Regular Lodge of Perfection known as the 
"Ineffable." 



244 The Hoosac Valley 

and leased a farm from Cornelius Van Ness. The bond, with 
the signatures of both Dr. Richey and Patroon Van Ness, is 
now ow^ned by Edgar P. Ladd of Salem, N. Y. 

After the Revolution public inns stood about a mile apart 
on the Post Road throughout Hoosac Valley. Among the 
licensed landlords of Dutch Hoosac between March 4, 
1789, and 1800 may be named, William Roberts, Jr., God- 
frey Stock, Jacob Van Ness, Daniel Kimball, Henry 
Brown, Benona Burton, Daniel Van Rensselaer, Thomas 
Sickles, Jonathan Twiss, John Bovie, Caleb Hill, Thomas 
Ford, Henry Van Broock, Freelove Aylesworth, Dan Lyon, 
John Potter, Reuben Baldwin, besides Esquires Jacob Van 
Valkenburgh, Daniel Bratt, John Mattison, Norris Pearce, 
Joseph Ellsworth, William McCoy, Samuel Crary, and 
Philip Haynes. 

Noble's Tavern of Falls Quequick was built in 1794 by 
Daniel and Sylvester Noble from West Stockbridge, Mass. 
It burned later and Cornelius Van Vechten built the Phoenix 
Hotel on its site in 1805, run by Landlord Ezra Sackett. 
The inn burned again and the site is now occupied by Wood's 
Block. The Nobles and their kinsman, Reuben Baldwin, 
later purchased Isaac Turner's store and Joel Abbott's 
blacksmith shop and ashery. Daniel Noble was a justice 
of the peace and once fined a hunter three shillings for break- 
ing the Sabbath. He also sentenced a man for swearing to 
an hour in the Pillory or Stock, located on the corner of 
Main and Water streets, opposite the site of Noble's Tavern. 
The ancient whipping-post was the venerable tree located 
on the late Walter Abbott Wood's lawn, opposite Parsons's 
resid"ence. Here the constable, Godfrey Eddy, of Pittstown, 
on January 27, 1794, bared the back of a thief and adminis- 
tered twelve stripes with the "Twigs of the Wilderness." 

Slavery in Dutch Hoosac had in 1802 reached its lowest 
depth of degradation. In that year the Albany Legislature 



Old Hoosac Falls and Petersburgh 245 

passed an act requiring all slave owners to record the births 
of illegitimate children of their slaves. John Palmer on 
March 30, 1802, recorded before the justice that: "He had 
the 3d day of May last a male child, born of his black ser- 
vant girl, named Dick." Jacob Ford on February 24, 1803, 
acknowledged the birth of a female colored child, bom May 
25, 1802, named Lucretia Benjamin; Henry Van Ness on 
March 22, 1802, certified that: "Gin, his black or African 
slave, had a female child born in his house on the 30th day 
of June, 1801, named Betty." Gin deserted her master and 
settled in North Adams on the upper Hoosac. The Over- 
seers of the Poor recorded several births among their slaves 
before New York abolished slavery in 1827. 

After the victorious campaign of 1777, several churches 
were organized and built in Dutch Hoosac, including the 
Baptist Church of the "Warren Society" at Mapleton, two 
miles west of "Hoosick 4 Comers Inn," March 16, 1785. 
The Tory Elder, Benjamin Hough, first minister of the 
Shaftsbury Baptist Church of Vermont, preached frequently 
in Hoosac until 1797, in which year Elder Samuel Rogers 
was regularly installed. Deacons John Ryan, Benjamin 
Walworth, Samuel Burrell, Joseph Dorr, and Sylvester 
Noble later organized the Baptist Church of Falls Quequick. 
It was built among the pines, in the south end of the village, 
in 1804 and is still doing duty, although much enlarged. 
Elder David Rathbum was installed as regular pastor in 
1805. The Up-River Methodist Church, on the right bank 
of the Walloomsac, near Battle-field Park, was founded April 
16, 1 81 1, by Elder William Lake, Thomas Skeel, John 
Matthews, Benjamin Bamet, Isaac Mosher, Thomas Mill- 
man, Simeon Sweet, and John Comstock. 

In the Little Hoosac Valley of Rensselaerwyck Manor, 
William Coon welcomed John Burdict and other brethren of 
the "Hopkinton Society" from Framingham, Ct., at Joseph 



246 The I l(K)s:u: ValU-y 

CarponttM-'s home, and on St-pti'iuhcr 24, 17S0, I'oumlcd the 
Seventh Day Baptist or Ailventist Church, of which liUder 
Coon was installed pasttu'. The B;i])tist Church of the 
"Warren Society" was organized at Little Hoosac, no\s 
Berlin, in 1784, and Justus Hull was installed pastor. At an 
equally early day several licrmans hiiilt a Lutheran Church 
in South Berlin and noiiiiiiu- \'oedder was instalUnl ]iast(>r. 
The present BaptivSt and Methodist chuiclu-s of IVtersburgh 
were organized after the close of the War o( 1S12. 

At Little lloosac, Caleb Bentky built the finst grist-mill 
ami Amos Sweet the iirst saw-mill and blacksmith shoj); 
and Manns Griswold, John l\i>(.>ve, Joel Mallery, and josei)h 
Hastings opeucnl the (irst stores. Tlu> first taverns included 
th(xse of Hanii-I I lull, James Main, Simeon Odell, Pr. Burton 
ll.nnnioiul, Nathaniel Niles, John Klunles, ami Nelson 
IliMulerson. Among the doctors may be mentuHUHl Job 
Tripj), Peter Olds, Henry Brown, Emerson Hull, Ebenezer 
Robinson, and Joseph Thomi)son Skinner. 

During the "Anti-Rent War," tlu> Rensselaerwyck ten- 
antry of Little Hoosac agreed to annoimce the advance of tlu^ 
sherifT of the ma'iior by blowing a dinner-horn, as a sigtuil 
to the "Bulian Bi^ys' " militia of the Committee of Public 
Safety. In instances of false alarm, it is reported that tlu> 
fictitious "Tndirms" ate up the farmers' dinner in true 
savage style. 

After the Revolution Ma j. -den. Aaron Worthington built 
the tavern of Rensselaer Mills, still standing in South 
Petersburgh, north of the Baptist Church. Although he 
had served during the War of 181 2, he won his military title 
during general training days of the State militia, after the 
close of hostilities. He became first ix)stmaster of Peters 
burgh in 1822 and the post-office was located at his inn. 

The first town-meeting of Rensselaer Mills was held in 
March, 1791, at Hezekiah Coon's Inn, built by Cornelius 





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247 



248 The Hoosac Valley 

Letcher in the North Village about 1766. Rensselaer Mills 
was organized as the Town of Petersburgh, and christened 
in honor of Peter Simons, chief farm-master and the largest 
land-holder of Rensselaerwyck in Little Hoosac Valley. 
The upper Little Hoosac neighborhood was organized as 
Berlin in 18 12, although official town records were not kept 
until about 1850. 

West of Petersburgh lies the hilly town of Grafton, in the 
Hoosacs' Lake District, known as the "Fisherman's Para- 
dise," containing Lake Taconac, Lake Babcock, and Long 
Pond. The region was first settled by Abel Owens from 
Rhode Island about 1786. He was presented with a farm of 
two hundred acres by Patroon Van Rensselaer, and was joined 
by "Honest" John Babcock and other Baptists about Lake 
Babcock, including Elkanah Smith, Joshua Banker, William 
Scrivens, the Coon, Demmon, Wells, Wilcox, West, Burdick, 
Lewis, and Rogers families. Justus Hull organized the First 
Baptist Church of Grafton and the present tavern and grist- 
mill of Grafton Centre were built by Gen. Stephen Van 
Rensselaer in 1838, at a cost of $80,000, and the centre of 
the town is known as Patroons' Mills to-day. 

At the opening of 1780, George Tibbits, a son of John 
Tibbits of Warwick, R. L, who first settled on a farm in 
Cheshire on the upper Hoosac, moved down the Hoosac 
to Lansingburgh, where at the age of seventeen, through 
the financial aid of the importer, Francis Atkinson, he 
became a dry-goods merchant. In 1800 George Tibbits pur- 
chased Col. Francis J. Van Pfister's "White House Manor " of 
Nepimore, in Dutch Hoosac, and was elected a member ot 
the Albany Assembly and Senator of the Eastern District 
of New York during Gov. De Witt Clinton's term of office, 
between 1815 and 1820. 

The "White House Manor" descended to George Morti- 
mer Tibbits, eldest son of George Tibbits. He built a brick 



Old Hoosac Falls and Petersburgh 249 

mansion, remodelled in i860 into the present, brown, free- 
stone Gothic castle, now owned by his son, Le Grand Tibbits. 
The quaint architecture of Tibbits Gothic castle and the 
park-enfolded slopes of Nepimore Vale distinguish it as 
the finest manor in the Hoosacs' Valley of Mingling Waters. 
Here, George Mortimer Tibbits (if one excepts the time he 
spent in travel in England, France, Germany, and Italy) 
passed his entire life, collecting treasures of art and a val- 
uable French library, until his death in 1878. He imported 
a large herd of Teeswater Durham cattle and at one time 
owned the largest flock of Saxony sheep in America. The 
German, H. De Grove, first imported Saxony sheep to 
Hoosac during 1820. Bucks at that time sold as high as 
I500. In 1845 there were 56,000 Saxony sheep grazing 
on the Hoosac hillsides. Hoosac and North Adams became 
a wool-growing centre in 1829 and the finest cheviots, 
merinos, and cashmeres were manufactured by Briggs 
Brothers until 1884 at the historic "Linwood Mills" at 
North Adams. 

After the opening of the Stone Post Road between Albany 
and Bennington in 1791, Hezekiah Munsell, Sr., became the 
first postmaster, followed by Dr. Asher Armstrong from 
Taunton, Mass. The latter was postmaster until his death 
in 1832. Hezekiah Munsell, Jr., and Dr. Prosper Armstrong 
founded the first public library in Hoosac in 1825. Dr. Asher 
Armstrong in 1796 built his homestead on South Main Street, 
known to-day as Betsey Hawks' s house, owned by Edward 
Hawks of North Adams, a lineal descendant of Sergt. John 
Hawks of Fort Massachusetts fame. The famous doctors 
of Hoosac included the names of Simeon Curtiss, Murray 
Hall, and John Warren; and the leading lawyers included the 
names of Reuben Walworth, George Rex Davis, Hezekiah 
Munsell, Jr., Lorenze Sherwood, James W. Nye, John Fitch, 
and Judge Levi Chandler Ball. 



250 The Hoosac Valley 

During the War of 1812 the first volunteers of Hoosac to 
join Brig.-Gen. Gilbert Eddy's "Expedition" against the 
British at Plattsburgh in 18 14 included: 

John Haynes Talman Chase 

Capt. Lemuel Sherwood Benjamin Sweet 

Benjamin Baker Ensign John Hallenbeck 

Stephen Chapman Solomon Wilson 

Garret Hallenbeck Clark Baker 

Job Case Jacob Height 

Jacob Van Denburgh Sergeant Watkins 

Mr. Onderkirk 

William Coon, Justus Hull, and Aaron Worthington werej 
among the military leaders of Little Hoosac Valley. Ca])!. 
Sylvanus Danforth lead the Pownal company, while the 
Berkshire and Bennington companies were not behind in 
rallying at the Old Finney Tavern Stand in Pittstown, 
previous to Eddy's march to Plattsburgh. 

During those days the "hoosick 4 corners tavern" 
became headquarters for central Hoosac Boys' militia. 
The town in 18 12 contained three companies, including 
Capt. Thomas Osborne's Artillery, Capt. Abram Reach's 
Infantry, Capt. Nathaniel Bosworth's Cavalry, and a vol- 
unteer company of Minute Men, headed by Capt. George 
Rex Davis, a son of the patriotic Welshman who deserted 
Burgoyne's British home-ranks on their march through 
Hoosac Pass to Boston in October, 1777. 



CHAPTER XII 

OLD SCHAGHTICOKE AND OLD CAMBRIDGE DISTRICTS 

I759-1815 

Our Indian rivulets, 
Wind mindful still of sannup and of squaw. 
Whose pipe and arrow oft the plough unburies. 
Here, in pine houses, built of new-fallen trees, 
Supplanters of the tribe, the farmers dwell. 

Emerson. 

Protestant Dutch Church — Knickerbacker Mansion — Pittstown and Cam- 
bridge Patents— MiHtary Districts — Burgoyne's Invasion, 1777 — Tory 
Out-Posts — ^Massacre of Maj. Derrick Van Vechten — Methodist, Baptist, 
Quaker, Dutch Reformed, and Presbyterian Churches — Town-Meetings, 
1789 — Inns — Slaves — Burial-Fields — Academies — Festivities at Knicker- 
backer "Hostead." 

THE Knickerbacker tenantry of Old Schaghticoke Manor 
avoided the English settlers, and it is said that a line 
of neutrality ran north and south through Hart's Falls, 
separating their social domains. The aggressive spirit of 
the Friesland aristocracy against the English Pilgrims was 
partly dissipated through intermarriage and constant migra- 
tion before the close of the Revolution. The Connecticut 
and Green Mountain Boys managed to marry the Dutch 
patroons' daughters, and their grandsons have inherited 
their Hoosac Manors, where their descendants still reside. 

The "Great Lots" 28, 39, 40, 41, and 42 of Hoosac Patent, 
were located in the limits of Schaghticoke township. The 
village lies in the "Eastermost half of Lot 41," drawn chiefly 
by Philip Van Ness, an heir of Jan Van Ness; and lots 28 

251 



252 The Hoosac Valley 

and 39 were drawn by John B. Van Rensselaer, heir of 
Kiliaen Van Rensselaer. In 1 765, he sold lot 39 and half of 
the mill-lot 28 to Simon Toll of Fort Schenectady. Ten 
years later Toll disposed of his interest in the mill-lot to his 
son, Charles Toll, and during 1793 he sub-divided the lot 
into farms and sold them to the English and Scotch-Irish. 
The Tioshoke Manor of Philip Van Ness, on the north bank 
of Hoosac River, contained 4000 acres and was two miles 
in width. It extended from Hart's Falls up the Hoosac to 
the junction of the Owl Kill. Chief farm-master, Thomas 
Whittebeck, built a saw-mill and grist-mill near the junction 
of Gordon's Brook with the Hoosac at Tioshoke Village. 
These were the first mills in the Cambridge District. 

The Dutch meeting-house of Old Schaghticoke was torn 
down in 1760 and replaced by a frame edifice, the first in 
Hoosac Valley. It was modelled after the Dutch Church of 
Albany, and was 40 x 60 feet, with a low side wall surmoun- 
ted by a high-pitched, mansard roof and bulbous turret, 
topped by a brass weather-cock. The pulpit stood on a 
high pedestal beneath a huge sounding board, and the hour- 
glass on a side bracket pointed out the length of the sermon 
to the nodding burghers. The sacred desk was graced by 
the family Bible of Col. Johannes Knickerbacker, 2d, which 
was printed in Holland during 1 741 . Below the pulpit stood 
the voor-lieser s (clerk's desk) and in front of that stood 
the quaint communion table. The Bible and hand Kerk- 
klockje (church-bell) descended to the late Col. William 
Knickerbacker of the colonial mansion east of the "Ho- f 
stead." 

The dominie's parsonage was built about 1770 east of the 
Tomhannac Creek Bridge. An "Indenture," dated July 
4, 1767, records that "Yocob Viele conveyed the premises 
to the 'Ministers, Elders, and Deacons of the Protestant 
Dutch Church of the City of Albany ' . . . ' f or Divers Good 








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253 



254 



The Hoosac Valley 



causes and Consideration' . . . 'but more especially for 
and in consideration of Five Shillings current money of 
New York.'" 

Dominie Eilardus Westerlo preached quarterly at Old 
Schaghticoke Church between 1759 and the installation of 



r\. 




The Family Bible of Col. Johannes Knickerbacker, 2d, printed in Holland 
in 1 741. The Hand-bell was used to call the burghers of the Vale of Peace to 
service at the Old Dutch Church. It is undoubtedly the first church-bell used at 
the first frame church built in Hoosac Valley during Colonial Days. 



the venerable Elias Van Bunschooten in 1 773. After the open- 
ing of the Revolution in New York City, the Dutch Reformed 
missionaries, Dominie Lambertus De Ronde and his wife, 
Margareta Catharine De Sandra- De Ronde, purchased the 
Johannes De Wandlaer homestead, a mile north of the Knick- 
erbacker Mansion, and aided Dominie Van Bunschooten. 

Colonel Knickerbacker, 2d, owned a large stafif of Negro 
slaves, including Tom Mandolin, who received his surname 
because of his ability to play the mandolin. Uncle Tom 



Old Schaghticoke and Cambridge Districts 255 

was never able to master addition and subtraction. He 
was stationed at the gateway of the sheepfold by his master 
to count the sheep as they were turned out to the pasture. 
He began: "One, two, three," but could not go farther, and 
continued to exclaim : " Massa, there goes a'nudder, a'nudder, 
and a'nudder," until it was discovered that the whole flock 
had departed. 

Uncle Tom delighted to sit in the chimney comer with his 
mandolin during the long winter evenings and entertain 
the Knickerbacker boys and their friend, Washington 
Irving. He recounted the Mahican legends of St. Croix, 
"Weeping Rocks," and the witch stories of Kreigger Rocks 
and the massacres of Schaghticoke Plains and Spook 
Hollow. He was familiar with the mysterious pilgrimages 
of Queen Esther and her maidens from St. Regis to the Hoo- 
sacs' burial-field, and the adventures of Col. Ethan Allen 
and his "Minute Men," including Ignace Kipp and John 
J. Bleecker of Tomhannac. 

Pittstown Patent comprised the valley of Tomhannac 
Creek, south to Rensselaerwyck. It was granted on July, 
23, 1 761, to six proprietors including Shepherd, Clark, 
Sawyer, Schuyler, De Peyster, and Van Cortlandt. The 
north line of Pittstown to-day follows the centre of Hoosac 
River. Among the proprietors of Pittstown, after the first 
town-meeting took place in 1789, may be named: 

Augustus Van Cortlandt William Prendergast 

Alexander Thompson Stephen Hunt 

Benjamin Aiken Christian Fischer 

Edmund Aiken Joseph Tanny 

Isaac Van Hoosen Samuel Livingston 

Teunis Van Derwerker Thomas Hicks 

Sy brant Quackenbosch Pennel Bacon 

Joshua Babcock Cornelius Wiley 

Samuel Rowland Michael Van Dercook 



256 The Hoosac Valley- 

Michael Van Dercook built the Cooksboro Mills, James 
Mallery taught the Buskirk District School, James Purdy 
ran a blacksmith shop, and Samuel Osborne a shoe-shop. 

Cambridge Patent at first comprised 30,000 acres in the 
Owl Kill and White Creek intervales, granted on July 21, 
1 761, to Isaac SaAvyer, Edmund Wells, Jacob Abraham 
Lansing, Alexander Colden, William Smith, and Goldsboro 
Bangor. After the first town-meeting in 1789, Philip Van 
Ness's Tioshoke Manor on the north bank of Hoosac, con- 
taining 4000 acres, was placed under the jurisdiction of the 
town of Cambridge and later inherited by the patroon's 
four daughters. 

The first settlers of Cambridge included thirty Scotch- 
Irish families from Coleraine in Old Berkshire, including 
Col. Absalom Blair, Jeremiah Clarke, George Duncan, Capt. 
George Gilmore, Maj. James Cowden, Ephraim Cowan, 
David Harrow, William Clarke, John Scott, Thomas Morri- 
son, and others. Each received a farm of one hundred 
acres, located on the banks of the Owl Kill, if he settled upon 
it within three years after the patent was granted. Maj. 
James Cowden built the first log-tavern, on the site of his 
"Checkered House," which still stands. 

Col. Johannes Knickerbacker, 2d, in 1770, completed his 
brick mansion in Old Schaghticoke and invited the Albany 
mayor and council to a feast. He bargained with the merry 
councillors for Schaghticoke Manor, containing six miles 
square, and secured it for less than $1000. He agreed, 
however, to entertain the successive " Gentlemen of Albany " 
with "Meat, Drink, and lodging once a Year" at his "Ho- 
stead" in Old Schaghticoke. Two years later, on March 
24, 1772, Albany County was sub-divided into Schaghticoke 
and Cambridge military districts. The former comprised 
Colonel Knickerbacker' s Schaghticoke Manor and the Pitts- 
town patent, and the latter, the Philip Van Ness Tioshoke 







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257 



258 The Hoosac Valley 

Manor; and Cambridge Patent now comprised in Cambridge, 
White Creek, and Jackson townships. 

The Cambridge Council of Safety sent John Younglove, 
Samuel Ashton, Simeon Carel, Jeremiah Clarke, and John 
Millington as delegates to the Albany council of war on 
May 10, 1775, the same day that Col. Ethan Allen captured 
Fort Ticonderoga. 

Upon the advance of Burgoyne's British army down the 
Hudson in August, 1777, the mixed tenantry of the Schaghti- 
coke and Hoosac manors removed to Albany, Williamstown, 
and Stockbridge. Ann Eliza Schuyler-Bleecker, in her Me- 
moirs, published in 1795, records that her husband, John J. 
Bleecker, was in Albany looking for quarters for his family, 
when a false alarm of an advance of Burgoyne's Indian scouts 
spread terror among the tenantry of the "Vale of Peace." 
Mrs. Bleecker caught her babe in her arms and led her other 
child five miles to " Stone Arabia," now Lansingburgh. She 
remained overnight in the attic of a wealthy acquaintance ; 
the children slept on blankets stretched over boards, while 
she wept. Mr. Bleecker arrived at sunrise and rescued his 
family and set sail on a sloop down the Hudson to Red Hook. 

A band of hostile Tories and Indians held Fort Schaghti- 
coke and several abandoned houses of the settlers as a 
British outpost. Col. Johannes Knickerbacker's 14th N. Y. 
Regiment, composed of officers and men from Dutch Hoosac 
and Schaghticoke, was slow in marching to the field of action. 
It is locally reported that he was fourteen days arriving at 
General Gates's encampment, which he reached October 7th, 
at dusk, just as the scene of the second battle of Old Sara- 
toga was closing and in time only to shout exultingly to the 
fleeing Britains. 

Maj. Derrick Van Vechten, an officer in Colonel Knicker- 
backer's 14th Regiment, was posted at Mechanicsville. He 
and Samuel Acker visited Old Schaghticoke before the 



Old Schaghticoke and Cambridge Districts 259 

Battle of Saratoga on September 19th, to observe their 
fields of grain. While standing on the hill of Yocob Yates's 
farm, above the Tomhannac Bridge, the Tories and Indians 
fired a volley of bullets as they retreated toward the Hudson. 
Major Van Vechten fell, mortally wounded, with a bullet in 
his heart, beneath the elm tree on the present road below 
Reynolds Station. He shouted to Acker to take care of 
himself, saying: "You cannot save me," Acker reached the 
American Camp and a detachment of soldiers was sent to 
bury Major Van Vechten's body. 

The Tomhannac Road was also guarded by Tories, occu- 
pying Abraham Viele's house below Buttermilk Falls. 
Three officers on horseback advanced to Fort Schaghticoke 
with messages from Generals Clinton and Howe to General 
Burgoyne. They were mistaken for American scouts, and 
the sharpshooters posted in the Spook Hollow ravine above 
Viele's house mortally wounded one of the officers. He 
expired beneath the butternut tree, still standing in front 
of the Button house, now on the site of Viele's house. 

After the surrender of the British in 1777, Hoosac, Pitts- 
town, and Cambridge Patents were settled by Baptists and 
Quakers from New England. The Dutch Reformed Church 
was founded at Pittstown Centre in 1787 by deacons John 
Bailey, John Van Woerdt, Jonathan Yates, and Simeon Van 
Dercook; and the Tioshoke Dutch Reformed Church, located 
at Buskirk Bridge, in Cambridge District, was organized, 
May 2, 1792, by Dominie Samuel Smith, Patroon Philip 
Van Ness, Johannes Quackenbosch, Nicholas Groesbeck, 
Ludovicus Viele, Petrus Viele, and Johannes Van Buskirk. 
The Presbyterian Church — a branch of the Dutch Reformed 
Church at Tomhannac — was organized, March 25, 1800, 
by the original deacons of the Reformed Church of Pitts- 
town Centre. 

The Baptist Church of the "Warren Society" began at 



26o The Hoosac Valley 

Pittstown Centre in March, 1787, being instituted by Ger- 
shorm Hinckley, Benjamin Eastwood, Jared Mead, Samuel 
Crandall, John Lamb, Wihiam Lamport, Jacob Miller, 
Samuel Halstead, William Cuthbert, Mayhew Daggett, 
Jeremiah Reynolds, Ebenezer Wilson, Nathan Jeffers, and 
Thomas Martin from Rhode Island. 

The Society of Friends was organized in Pittstown during 
1787, and included as members the names of Abigal Lamb, 
John Osborne, David Norton, Caleb Norton, Simeon Brown- 
ell, and Asa Hoag. Mrs. Rose Eddy, Simeon Brownell, 
Asa Hoag, and Elizabeth Lawton, wife of Joseph Lawton, 
were the first speakers. The Quaker meeting-house was 
built about 1800; subsequently burned and rebuilt in 18 19 
by Mica j ah Hunt. 

The founders of Cambridge District, after the campaign 
of 1777, included Phineas Whiteside, Daniel Bratt, Nathaniel 
Kenyon, Samuel Willet, and the Scotch-Irish merchants, 
John Shirland, Hugh Laramouth, John Galloway, David 
Burrows, Calvin Skinner, Alexander Marshall, Elihu 
Gifford, the Almy, Tilton, Mayhew, Brownell, Sherman, 
Stevenson, Ackley, Bowen, Webster, Green, Wier, Averill, 
English, Waite, Coulter, and McVicar families. 

Young Elihu Gifford once led a romantic life on board a 
privateer. He aided his captain in seizing a British vessel 
loaded with silver, and the money was transferred to their 
privateer. This success lead them to try to seize a disguised 
British ship of war, manned with seventy-four guns. In 
the attempt the privateer herself was seized. Gifford was 
an expert swimmer and proposed to a companion in the hold 
of the British ship, to swim three miles to the Cuban shore, 
after dark. They reached the shore safely and the following 
morning the British ship set sail for England. Elihu Gifford 
returned to his native Cambridge hills. His son, Nathan, 
inherited his father's courage and headed a company of 



I 



old Schaghticoke and Cambridge Districts 261 

volunteers in Eddy's "Expedition" in 1814. Elihu Gifford 
and Samuel Sandford became kinsmen of the famous land- 
scape artist, Sandford Gifford. 

The White Creek intervale of Cambridge District was 
settled by Austin Wells, a son of the original proprietor, 
Edmund Wells, and several small patents were granted to 
other settlers, including Lake, Van Cuyler, Wilson, Bain, 
Campbell, Ashton, Embury, and Waite on the north bank 
of the Walloomsac, partly in Hoosac District. 

Elder William Waite and. several Rhode Island Baptists of 
the "Warren Society" of Cambridge District, together with 
Deacons Waldo and Goff of Hoosac District, in 1772 built 
the First Baptist Church at Waite's Corners, two miles 
south of Major Cowden's "Checkered House," between St. 
Croix and Walloomsac hamlets. The Baptist Church' was 
broken up August 16, 1777, many of the brethren joining Col. 
Francis J. Van Pfister's Loyalists and fighting against their 
brothers at the Tory breastworks. During February, 1779, 
the church was reorganized and a new meeting-house built. 
Elder William Waite was installed pastor until 1793, after 
which the famous missionary, the Rev. Obed Warren, the 
founder of the "Warren Society" of Baptists in America, 
at Warren, R. I., in 1767, was installed pastor and retained 
the office until 18 12. 

During 1769, Thomas and James Ashton of England 
headed a colony of Irish Methodists of the John Wesley 
Society, and located at Ash Grove, two miles east of Old 
Cambridge Village, in North White Creek intervale, bor- 
dering Shaftsbury, New Hampshire Grants. 

The military manor of Clarendon, containing 4000 acres, 
drawn and purchased by Lieut. Duncan McVicar in 1 763, 
was located in White Creek, N. Y., and Shaftsbury, New 
Hampshire Grants. It overlapped the latter township 

'Benedict, History of the Baptist Churches. 



262 The Hoosac Valley 

granted to the Rhode Islanders by Gov. Benning Went worth 
in 1 761. 

The Irish Methodists, Baptists, and Presbyterian pro- 
prietors of Shaftsbury founded not only their churches but 
their republican government, and Lieutenant McVicar was 
forced to sail for Scotland in 1770 and relinquish his baronial 
estate, east of the Twenty-Mile Line. Philip Embury, an 
Episcopal clergyman, became impressed with the zeal of 
the followers of John Wesley. He preached the first Metho- 
dist sermon in this country at the Old John Street Church 
in New York City in 1766. The White Creek Wesleyans 
held meetings in Ash Grove, near Ashton's home, until the 
Ash Grove Methodist Episcopal Church, the second in 
America, was organized in 1770. The Rev, Philip Embury 
was installed first pastor. He died at Salem, N. Y., and is 
known as the founder of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 
America. ' His grave in the Ash Grove burial-field is marked 
by a memorial monument to-day. The Ash Grove Metho- 
dist Church was the first church organized in Washington 
County. Later, in 1793, the Scotch-Irish followers of John 
Calvin founded the Presbyterian Church at Cambridge 
Village, although their "Old White Meeting-house" was not 
dedicated until many years later. 

After the advent of the Rhode Island Baptists, several 
Quakers from New Bedford, Mass., arrived about 1784. 
The Quaker Church of Cambridge was founded by Isaac 
and John Wood; Jonathan, Amos, Abraham, and Stephen 
Hoag; John and Philip Allen — cousins of Col. Ethan Allen; 
Jonathan Russey; Samuel, Joseph, and Allen Mosher; 
James Carpenter, Benjamin and Nathan Nichols; Micah 
Cavell, Micah and James Hunt; John Soule, John Wing, 
Cornelius Devol, David Norton, Seth Chase, and the Baker, 
Hart, Tabor, Cornell, Kintch, and Potter families. The 

' Johnston, Washington County History, p. 259. 



Old Schaghticoke and Cambridge Districts 263 

meeting-house of the Society of Friends was built half a 
mile west of White Creek hamlet, on land leased of Edward 
Aiken for an annual quit-rent of one pepper-com. The 
first and second churches were destroyed by fire — the latter 
in 1875. 

Schaghticoke township began in the centre of Hudson 
River at the northwest comer of Rensselaer County, thence 
ran east to the middle of Hoosac River; thence down the 
river to Viele's or Toll's Bridge, a direct course to Michael 
Van Dercook's grist-mill at Cooksboro; westerly along the 
bounds of Lansingburgh to the centre of Hudson River, and 
thence northerly to the place of beginning. 

The founders of Schaghticoke included the grandsons of 
the Knickerbacker Dutch tenantry, and several English 
and Scotch-Irish Pilgrims from New England. Thomas 
Lounsbury from Westchester County, N. Y., purchased 
second division lots 2 and 3 of the Great Lot 41 on Hoosac 
Patent in 1778 for $9000. His farm was a quarter of a 
mile in width, running westerly on the Stillwater Road, 
extending two miles north of the "Big Eddy," of Hart's 
Falls. Lounsbury 's "Big Eddy" mill-lot was later owned 
by Johannes P. Hansen and Aaron B. Hinman, now the site 
of Schaghticoke Point. The village of Hart's Falls was first 
settled by John Hart, John L Fort, Jacob Corbin, John 
Searles, William Bacus, John S. Mosher, David Bryan, 
John Banker, Patrick Fitzgerald, Frederick Romp, John 
and Augustus Downs, Daniel Elst, Garret Wenant, Rite 
Piner, Lewis Van Antwerp, David Browning, Sybrant Viele, 
George Wetsel, and Jacob Overock. 

The First Presbyterian Church was founded by Thomas 
Lounsbury and other members of the Calvin Society, on 
Schaghticoke Hill Road, south of Hart's Falls in 1805. 
Later the church was moved to Hart's Falls, where several 
inns, mills, and stores centred. About the same time Schagh- 



264 The Hoosac Valley 

ticoke Hill hamlet, two miles south of Hart's Falls, con- 
tained Roger's Inn, Peter Hurly's blacksmith shop, Hiram 
Buel's shoe-shop, Peter Yates's store, George Burton's twine- 
mill, Harwood's powder-keg mill, and Herman Jansen 
Knickerbacker's grist-mill and saw-mill, known as James 
Ryan's mills to-day. Two miles below, near Buttermilk 
Falls on the Tomhannac and above Abram Viele's Inn, stood 
a bellows' -mill; and in the Bryan District, on the Hudson 
terrace, stood a grain-cradle and fanning-mill shop. 

Among the licensed inn-keepers of Schaghticoke between 
1789 and 1804 may be named Jesse Buffett, who ran the 
American House at Hart's Falls; Benjamin Holt, Abram 
Viele, Garret Winne, Simon Toll, John Story, Jacob Over- 
ock, David Bryan, John Travice, Jared Esbill, Caleb Gifford, 
Moses Canfield, Ephraim Lyon, Isaac Bull, Samuel Storms, 
James Brooking, Nathaniel Rusco, and James Lightbody. 

The Albany Legislature passed an act in 1 802 requiring all 
slave owners to appear before a justice and record illegitimate 
births of children born among their Negro slaves. In 
Schaghticoke, Cornelius Buskirk certified that his slave, 
named Gin, had a female child, born August 19, 1798, named 
Sarah Frances; Nicholas Groesbeck, Joseph Talmage, Peter 
Yates, John Knickerbacker, Winslow Paige, Lewis Viele, 
Bethel Mather, William Groesbeck, Levennus Van Denburg, 
John Crabb, and Jacob Sipperly all made similar records 
until the abolition of slavery in 1827. Another record in 
1804 was that the Canada thistle was a pest in Schaghticoke 
fields and each land owner was fined $5.00 if he failed to 
destroy those weeds. 

The Thomas Lounsbury burial-field was dedicated for the 
use of the poor on Stillwater Road, near Schaghticoke 
Village, in 1797. The oldest marked grave was that of 
"Michael Klein, son of Joseph and Elizabeth Klein, born 
September 29, 1774, and died March 21, 1797, aged 22 



Old Schaghticoke and Cambridge Districts 265 

years." The cemetery was locally known as the "Klein 
Grave Yard," until the stone was removed a few years 
ago. The tombstone of the founder is located in the 
centre of the yard: 

IN MEMORY 

of 

Thomas Lounsbury 

Who departed this life 

I2th May, 1813 

In 77 th Year of 

His Age. 

The first town-meeting of Pittstown was held at the Still 
Tavern, near the Dutch Reformed Church, in Centre-of-the 
! Town, during April, 1789. The licensed inn-keepers included 
Peter Doty of the Brick Tavern, Daniel Carpenter and 
Colonel Reed at Pittstown Centre; the latter inn is known 
as the Union House to-day. Finney's Tavern Stand on the 
Herman farm proved a rallying place for the volunteers 
joining Gen. Gilbert Eddy's "Expedition" against the 
British at Plattsburgh, on Lake Champlain in 18 14. Wads- 
worth's Tavern of Boyntonville, Aiken's Inn, and Fish's 
Tavern were considered the famous hostelries before the 
Battle of Bennington. Gifford's Tavern at Valley Falls 
won a reputation for its festivities during the War of 18 12, 
I at which time Mordecai Lotteridge was its proprietor. 

The first town-meeting of Cambridge was held at Ishmael 
I Gardner's Inn, at Waite's Corners, during March, 1789, 
I and thereafter at Archibald McVicar's Inn, known later 
'1 as Waite's Tavern. Maj. James Cowden's famous "Check- 
' ered House," painted with red and white checkers, was the 
!( leading tavern in Cambridge Valley during the Revolution, 
It was converted into a private residence a few years ago. 

Among the first physicians of Cambridge may be men- 
tioned Dr. John Williams, Dr. Jonathan Dorr of Dorr's 



266 



The Hoosac Valley 



Corners, Dr. Post of Post's Comers, Dr. Morris of Buskirk 
Bridge, and his son, Dr. Philip Van Ness Morris — a class- 
mate of William Cullen Bryant and Samuel J. Mills, Jr., 
at Williams College in 1 809-1810. John Pope Putnam, son 
of Peter Schuyler Putnam of Williamstown, was a grandson 
of the famous Gen. Israel Putnam. He, also, graduated from 



■■HHi^Hi^wifW'mimnnii J I 





The Checkered House, built by Major James Cowden during the Revolution, 
after the introduction of red and white paint. 

Williams College in 1809 and later became a jurist. He 
married Elizabeth, daughter of Dr. Dorr, and was located 
at Dorr's Comers in Cambridge until his death in 1867. 

Union Academy of White Creek hamlet in Cambridge 
was founded in 18 10. It was a two-story building, sur- 
mounted by a belfry, and the school was opened by Prof. 
Isaiah Y. Johnson. Among the distinguished students may 
be named George N. Briggs, son of the blacksmith, William 
Briggs of Briggs's Corners, Cambridge ; and Hiland Hall of 
Bennington. Briggs later studied law at Lanesboro, Mass., 



Old Schaghticoke and Cambridge Districts 267 

and was elected Governor of Massachusetts in 1856; and 
' Hiland Hall studied law and later became Governor of 
Vermont. He was the author of The Early History of 
Vermont. Other famous pupils included the subsequent 
Senator Joel Talmage, Judge Daniel Talmage, Judge Olin, 
Gideon Hard, John McDonald, and Gilbert Morgan. The 
I Old Academy is at present doing duty as a tenement house. 
I The Cambridge Washington Academy of Cambridge 
■Village was organized, July 25, 1814, and opened by Prof. 
j David Chazel, a gentleman of French origin. It flourished 
for fifty-eight years, closing for want of funds in 1873. The 
population of Cambridge in 1790 was 4987. The celebra- 
tion of Peace, after the close of hostilities with England in 

1 81 5, was heralded in White Creek by a procession of the 
veterans of 1777, headed by the centurion, Zebulon Allen, 
bearing the American Stars and Stripes. 

The town of Cambridge was sub-divided into the towns 
of White Creek and Jackson. The first town-meeting of 
White Creek was held at Jaques Johnson's Inn in April, 

1 8 16. Daniel P. Carpenter was chosen postmaster in 1822. 
Albany County was sub-divided into Rensselaer and Wash- 
ington counties in 1791. Cambridge town came under the 
jurisdiction of the latter, and Schaghticoke, Pittstown, and 
Hoosac towns under the jurisdiction of the former county. 
Col. Johannes Knickerbacker, 2d, in 1792, was elected a 
member of the State Legislature from Rensselaer County, 
an office which he filled until his death in 1802 at the age 
of seventy-nine years. He left four sons and several daugh- 

[' ters. Johannes Knickerbacker, 3d, was commissioned colo- 

ii nel of the State militia during the War of 18 12, and became 

' a member of the Albany Legislature ; William Knickerbacker 

built the colonial mansion half a mile east of the "Ho- 

stead," and was commissioned colonel of the Schaghticoke 

militia during General Training and " Nigger- Whipper " of 



268 The Hoosac Valley 

Schaghticoke slaves until 1827. He died in 1848, two year 
before the death of the Knickerbacker slave, Tom Mandolin 
The annual feasts of the "Albany Gentlemen" continuec 
until after the death of Col. Johannes Knickerbacker, 26. 
After the death of Col. Johannes Knickerbacker, 3d, th( 
"Hostead" descended to his brother, Abraham Knicker 
backer, whose portrait still hangs on the parlor wall 
Herman Jansen Knickerbacker, fourth son of Colone 
Knickerbacker, 2d, built his mansion on the north banl 
of the Tomhannac Creek, at Schaghticoke Hill. He becam( 
host of the mayor and the council of Troy after it was chart 
ered, February 7, 1791, as an offset for the festivities hclc 
at the Old Mansion. On one occasion, when the Troy Gcni 
tlemen arrived, their host pretended to have forgotten th( 
day appointed. He assured his famished guests that h( 
was wholly unprepared to receive them. Enjoyment of th( 
joke followed after the dining-room doors were thrown oper 
upon a sumptuous repast. The festivities at the "Ho 
stead" were of a more dignified character. The guests were 
ushered to the parlor by a staff of slaves and their carriages 
driven to the cathedral-like bams. Colonel Knickerbacker 
2d, and his son, Herman Jansen Knickerbacker, according 
to the late Hiram Button, owned the first two coaches anc 
sleighs in Schaghticoke. Herman Jansen Knickerbackei 
married three helpmeets, each of whom brought him a for- 
tune to meet his social extravagances. During President 
Madison's office, he was Judge of Rensselaer County anc 
Congressman at Washington. His genial and humorous 
manner, characteristic of the Nederlanders, won him the life- 
long friendship of Washington Irving, and he is mentionec 
in Irving's Knickerbocker's History of New York. Congress- 
man Knickerbacker in his Washington speech said: "I want 
you to understand that I am Prince of the Tribe of the 
Schaghticokes." And this phrase won for him the title oi 




269 



270 The Hoosac Valley 



"Prince" Knickerbacker. Dolly Madison once asked him; 
the difference between the Dutch Reformed and the Presby-! 
terian Church creeds, to which he replied : "Not any, Madam, 
except one congregation sings short metre, and the other 
long metre," "Prince" Knickerbacker's son was elected} 
Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the West, and resembled 
his father. A portrait of Judge Knickerbacker is said to 
be in the possession of his granddaughter, Mrs. Kate Fay 
of Lansingburgh. " Prince " Knickerbacker's homestead onl 
Schaghticoke Hill was burned, and the estate is now owned' 
by the Tibbits of Hoosac. 

The manorial days of the Colonel Knickerbacker race are 
gone; though the parlor and haunted chambers of the Old 
Mansion still contain the life-like portraits of the departed 
burghers, whose steadfast gaze follows the beholder qucs- 
tioningly. In their accustomed corners still stand quaint 
arm-chairs and canopied bedsteads with the old-fashioned 
valance, in which many generations of Knickerbackers have 
nodded and dozed their last years away. The old clock in 
the parlor corner is silent, and its weary hands have dropped 
from their pivot, having pointed out the hours of conflict 
as well as the monotonous years of peace, since Dav. Morra 
of Muchty, Holland, turned forth the clock in the year 1625. 
He carved with skill the phases of the moon on the dial- 
plate, and the hands have pointed out the birth, marriage, 
and death hours, — hours of joy and hours of anguish during 
the past two centuries in the Hoosacs' "Vale of Peace." 



CHAPTER XIII 

THE GREEN MOUNTAIN BOYS' MILITIA OF BENNINGTON 

I 764-181 5 

To live hy law, 
Acting the law we live hy without fear, 
A nd because right is right, to follow right 
Were wisdom in scorn of consequences. 

Tennyson. 

Gov. Benning Wentworth's Commission — Green Mountain Towns — 
Military Grants — Land-Title Controversies — Bennington Militia — Stamp 
Act Riot — Settlers' Petition to King — Death of Samuel Robinson — 
Treaty with Mahican King — Pownal Militia — Freehold Court. 

GOV. Benning Wentworth's Commission, ^ dated in June 
1 74 1, bounded the New Hampshire Grants on the 
adopted Twenty- Mile Line between New York and New 
England. This boundary was published by the Crown, on 
Jno. Mitchell's Map,^ in London during 1755. The map 
was used later, in 1783, in adjusting the American and British 
domains. Governor Clinton and Lieut.- Governor Colden 
of New York, however, sent letters to Governor Wentworth 
and challenged the Green Mountain territory east to the 
Connecticut River, by virtue of the obsolete Charter^ of 
New York granted to the Duke of York in 1664. Governor 
Wentworth ignored these messages and between 1749 and 
1 765 signed over one hundred and twenty-five town charters ^ 

' Hiland Hall, Early Hist. Vermont, App. 2, p. 476. 

'See illustration, p. 63. ^ See illustration, p. 38. 

^Bennington was chartered in 1749; another town in 1750; two in 1752; 
seven in 1753, including Stamford, north of North Adams, and Woodford, 
east of Bennington; three in 1754; Pownal in 1760; sixty in 1761, including 
Shaftsbury, Arlington, and Glastonbury, north of Bennington; ten in 1762; 
and thirty in 1763. 

271 



2^2 The Hoosac Valley 

west of the Connecticut, — half of the two hundred and forty- 
six organized towns and cities in Vermont to-day. 

After the close of the French and Indian War, the Con- 
necticut Pilgrims migrated to the Green Mountain towns 
bordering Rensselaer wyck, Walloomsac, and Schneider pat- 
ents of Dutch Hoosac, N. Y. These patents overlapped 
Pownal, Bennington, and Shaftsbury on the New Hamj)- 
shire Grants. After the King's Military Proclamation, 
dated October 7, 1763, Lieut. -Governor Colden confirmed one 
hundred and six patents to the British, east of the adopted 
Twenty-Mile Line, covering portions of Bennington and 
Shaftsbury. Field officers were entitled to five thousand 
acres; captains, to three thousand; staff officers, to two 
hundred; and privates, to fifty acres each. Most of the 
grantees, however, returned to their homes and sold their 
grants to James Duane and other land-agents. The his- 
torian, Hiland Hall of Bennington, records that out of three 
hundred and twelve military claims that overlapped farms 
of the Bennington County settlers subsequently adjusted 
by the Governor in 1797, only five remained in the names 
of the original grantees. 

Lieut. Duncan McVicar, an officer of the 55th Regiment 
of Scottish Highlanders, father of Anna Mc Vicar-Grant, 
author of Memoirs oj an American Lady, published in 1808, 1 
drew a thousand acres. He purchased three thousand acres 
more of brother officers, and caused the vast tract to Ite 
located together in Durham and Clarendon manors, part in 
Shaftsbury, Vt., and part in White Creek, N. Y. In her 
cnildish fancy, his daughter contemplated the "simple 
felicity which was to prevail among the amiable and innocent 
tenants of their baronial estate." The Rhode Island pro- 
prietors of the town of Shaftsbury, chartered by Governor 
Went worth, 1761, however, refused to be tenants to anyone. 
Anna McVicar-Grant stated that their conversation was 



The Green Mountain Boys' Militia 273 

ainted with " Cromwellian politics," and that they "refused 
be slaves to arbitrary power." In 177O: Lieutenant 
.IcVicar, alarmed at the widespread declaration of Repub- 
icanism, embarked with his family for Laggan, Scotland. 
Ic left Clarendon Manor in charge of his friend and country- 
nan, John Munroe of West Shaftsbury, 

Lieut. -Governor Colden published a Proclamatio7i, De- 
:ember 28, 1763, setting forth the Yorker's claim to the 
'jreen Mountain District as far east as the Connecticut 
^iver. The Bennington County settlers were paralyzed 
,vhcn the King on July 20, 1764, confirmed Colden's Proc- 
amation and adjudged the Green Mountain towns under 
he jurisdiction of New York. 

Those of Connecticut and their Green Mountain grand- 
sons, as the Mahicans and Yorkers learned, came to 
;he wilderness with a "load of thought . . . knowing 
veil what they knew, not guessing but calculating!'' On 
Dctober 24, 1764, therefore, the Benningtonians organ- 
zed their first company of Green Mountain Boys. 
[The muster-roll contains the names of Capt. John Fassett, 
eleven officers, and forty-five members of rank and file, 
ncluding the names of the original founders of the town 
md church. 

Capt. Samuel Robinson's name is not enrolled among the 
Green Mountain Boys, since at that time he was a justice 
of the peace and detained in Albany Jail. During the latter 
part of October, a land-title controversy took place between 
several Dutch burghers and English settlers of Pownal, 
on New Hampshire Grants, Justice Samuel Robinson, 
Sr., and Sheriff John Ashley, on behalf of John Horsford 
and Isaac Charles, who had purchased farms in Pownal, 
attempted to eject Petrus Voseburgh (Vose) and Bastian 
Van Deel from farms upon which they "squatted" between 

1724 and 1760. The Sheriff of Rensselaerwyck arrested 

18 



274 The Hoosac Valley 

Samuel Robinson and John Ashley and lodged them h 
Albany Jail. This resulted in the organization of a Granc 
Committee and militia to defend the Green Mountaii 
settlers' rights against the Dutch land-claimants. 

The case of Petrus Voseburgh was finally settled, and ii 
1765 Patroon Stephen Van Rensselaer granted him a quit 
claim deed for his farm overlapping Pownal, ostensil)h 
for his honesty in rendering quit-rent and for his genera 
good reputation. The Dutch of Pownal became bitte 
Tories during the Revolution and caused the English pro 
prietors all possible annoyance. The present Voseburg] 
homestead was built by a son of Petrus in 1802, and hi 
descendants still reside in Orange, N. J. The Brimme 
family later owned Voseburgh's Pownal farm, occupiei 
to-day by Thomas Brownell. 

The historian, Hiland Hall of Bennington, claims that th 
clandestine marriage of the play-actor O'Brien, with th 
daughter of the Earl of Ilchester brought about the exposur 
of Lieut. -Governor Colden's fraudulent methods of land 
pirating. The King in Council advised the Governor c 
New York to grant Lord Ilchester and others sixty thousan( 
acres for O'Brien's benefit in the Mohawk Valley. Tha 
intervale was covered with charters, and O'Brien reporte( 
Colden's irregular patent methods to the Lords of Trad 
and was promised a vast manor in the Green Mountains o) 
the west bank of the Connecticut. But before this wa 
confirmed. Parliament passed the Stamp Act, March ^ 
1765, and the Stamp Riot that followed prevented it 
confirmation for lack of stamps. 

The Stamp Act was considered an infringement upon th 
rights and liberties of the colonists. The Crown's oratoi 
Charles Townsend, supporting the Ministry's side, said 
"These Americans, children planted by our care, nourishe( 
by our indulgence, protected by our arms, until they ar 



,c, 



Of th^Jirtt r^vmpmnf of MUitia in tiu tovtl of 
litnntngtoH, orgaumJ (kiuber i'i, l7©-4. 



OFFICERS; 

JOHN FASSETT, Cjftain. 

JAME« BUF.AKKNUIl>UlvZ.tfa/<iMJ«/. 

KM8HA FIEUVv&uign. 

WARRAWntiiFICERS. 

Leonard AofiiNS^^1t< Sergeant. 
Samtkl SArroRD, 2rf Serjeant. 
EbrxC^r Wiioi», 3</ Sergeant. 
j^ ,„ HsinQ^*(3nDsE, 4/<i Sergeant, 

* "' ^KsnTJinS ■IV^^^ i^ Corporal. 
'; ioHy Wool), 2rf VoryOTttl. 

Sami-el Pratt, SJ tbrporaV, 
' Pbter Habwood, 41^ Coporai, 

Bbkajah 8joiiT, Dnmmer. 
TiH>o;hyAbliotr, ^.braliam Newton, 

John Bbtroltg, Oeorgc Pci^rejr, 

8aWt4P!Rl*ooJr Silas Robinson, 

John OtttlMtaTif, .^^ , 'Mijsas Ilobinson, 
William Buriibaj^^," Josfjili Kichanisun, 
Jolm Biiriibain, ju#-^-Dani«l Uood. 



i)jrid Barnard, 
EfcTi Casfk!. -w . 
.Jlutiiua Clarji, ' 
AalMn Clark, jun. 
,AMCUfk, 
NaOiw Clark, 3d/ 
ilsaac Cbrk, 

Cnrnerm J Cadjr,;^^?'*' Otivet Scott, 
Juhiisoii OearalaiV^, Pt)ti>ea^ .Scott, 
Kuli*K Cocljfar, ' 
f-'ainuel CutJ«r, 
Isaac Uvvis, 
Elijah Dewey, 
Knoch Eastman, 
Jonaihan Eastman,, 
David Fassetlf^ 
Zohn Fassrti, 5\in. 
JuiailiaO Fasselt, • 
>'u^)li Fun«r, 
Ttcioi* Henjcrson, 
>?aciiaf't»t) H*rwi")(J, 



]ienaj.ili Itourl, 

Jose^jli SJifli'rd, 
Daniel Scott, 
, Jonalhaa Scott, 
• -Matthew Scott, 
.'Mo^es Si-oii, 



^^'alnuel Scott, 
John Siniih, 
^oliti Siniih, jun. 
ji>fiepli S'luith, 
-^^I'miitl Sniiih, 
*T^ioinas Smith, 
riijab Sli.rv. 
Thiimns >^l"ry, 
Jamen X"bbs, 
JnM»fi)i Wickwirw, 
Samuel Wiijjbt. 



Ii is 



'"*tS*^' 



id the ff»re;;'jin;3; ?toU fof the 



raiiilia rni^ni/ first i.ry :i;ii/^ ^l. pr^ihnjjlt. m 
ilii^ SL.ie. uill i'j-..;'.f'. «..ir;<- "f "II' rf ,(lfrs. 

l ... ;.,.;:. . ■■^■■■1 -■ '■■'■- 



VOL. x:: 



^ •" HU ULjKJt THINKS ; 



Ihe states ha^rcf 
Had he livei to wl 
extent to whteli hre| 
Gueotly pushed, an 
fears both as to tj] 
ofthp feileral 
ordinate i)owers of 
doubtless have «b 
13ut whiit wat^ 
but mistaken cos 
his successors in ' 
of the federal 
{lutous zoal for 
power in the gel 
The srowed prtol 
and ihe younijer 
portaiU qiiestioji, • 
there was iiothirrg-J 
tion did not toTicfl 
was there 9»«rcel. 
staler, which »v^ 
them, and hank' 
conslructlve cop 
head. Jefl'trsu 
Kepublicaii 
siohs ; and ' 
stroici|;le bt^til 
I'aity— the 
aiice of the • 
-t.ites,and the ' 
of the genei-l , 
and reasonuWel 
for the subvel^ 
an cnlirj; 
an exlcia as j 
designs ol 
Ihe ends of 1 1:1 
i< the </ii'> iiii\ 
It is iIki (run 
lo(\)rr, hrlwe 
Federal part 
iir.iln(;iin the^ 
tiicro-ichmcnWl 
^ a legitim] 
anil 
lis 



Muster-Roll of ihe First Company of Green Mountain Boys' 
Militia, organized at Bennington Centre, New Hampshire 
Grants, now Vermont, October 24, 1764. 
S7Sk 



276 The Hoosac Valley 

grown to a good degree of strength and opulence, will they 
grudge to contribute their mite?" 

The Colonists were represented by Colonel Barre, who 
replied : 

Children planted by your care? No. Your oppression 
planted them in America. . . . They nourished by your 
indulgence? No. They grew by your neglect. . . . They 
protected by your Arms! . . . They have nobly taken up 
arms in your defence ... of a country which, while its 
frontier was drenched in blood, has yielded all its little 
savings to your emolument. 

Nevertheless, Parliament passed the Stamp Act; and 
Benjamin Franklin, the night after, wrote Charles Thompson 
of Philadelphia that : ' ' The sun of liberty is set ; you must 
light up the candles of industry and economy." Mr. Thomp- 
son replied: "Be assured; we shall light up torches of quite 
another sort." On November i, 1765, Lieut. -Governor 
Colden attempted to convey the stamps, lately arrived, to 
Fort George on Bowling Green, New York City. A vast 
torchlight procession of the colonists appeared in the fields, 
on the site of Central Park, carrying two images on a scaf- 
fold, representing Colden and the Devil whispering in his 
ear. Those images were burned in front of Fort George 
along with all of the governor's carriages and sleighs. The 
next morning, Colden turned all the stamps over to the 
Mayor of New York and they were deposited in the City 
Hall. 

Twelve days after the Stamp Riot, Sir Henry Moore 
arrived and assumed the office of Governor of New York. 
Anna McVicar-Grant in 1808 stated that: "If the business 
of a governor was merely to keep the governed in good 
humor, none was better fitted for that office," than Moore. 
The Green Mountain settlers of Pownal, Bennington, Shafts- 



The Green Mountain Boys' Militia 277 

bury, Arlington, Sunderland, Manchester, and Danby re- 
solved to apply direct to Governor Moore for relief against 
the fraudulent patents of the Yorkers overlapping the 
towns granted by Governor Wentworth. During December 
following the Stamp Riot, Capt. Samuel Robinson, Sr., of 
Bennington and Jeremiah French of Manchester were 
chosen agents to present the Settlers' Petition to Governor 
Moore. He offered them no aid, and in March, 1766, the 
Stamp Act was repealed. The news of the repeal reached 
the Bennington settlers in May. Governor Moore allowed 
the settlers from June 6th to September 6th in which to 
make new surveys of the towns granted by Governor Went- 
worth and to prove their titles. This was impossible as 
they had spent their all in furthering their settlements. 
On September 7th, the New York surveyors began to es- 
tablish the Yorkers' fraudulent patents covering the 
Benningtonians' farms. 

A Petition' signed by over a thousand settlers along the 
western border of the Green Mountain District was prepared, 
and Capt. Samuel Robinson, Sr., chosen agent to present it 
to the King in Council. He was accompanied by attorney 
William Samuel Johnson of Connecticut and arrived in 
London, January, 1767, A detailed statement of the settlers' 
grievances was prepared by Johnson, and the Petition of the 
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts 
and another for the Church of England were also delivered 
to Lord Shelburne, Secretary of State, March 20, 1767. 

The King ordered Lord Shelburne to address Governor 
Moore a letter, ^ dated at White Hall, April 1 1 , 1 767, together 
with copies of the Benningtonians' petitions. Governor 
Moore and the Colden-Duane land-pirating league were 
indignant over Samuel Robinson's assumed statesmanship. 
On June 10, 1767, James Duane, Esq., aided Governor Moore 

' See Note 15 at end of volume. ' See Note 16 at end of volume. 



278 The Hoosac Valley 

and replied to Lri r i Shr.i^rr.r's letter. Tames Duane was 
proprietor of one-:Jiird of 26.; r :. :hr frs: grai: 

executed by Lieut.-Govemor Ci.i :. .hi: iv^rl^cpel the 
Bennington Cz'ir.zy settlers' land east ;: l.v T^etir^'-Mile 
Line. He held titles :: nearly 50,000 acres, 39 :: :.i:h 

were la: r : ir.i :: re military daims. Du : "as kn: atl 
in :he Hoosac anl Walloomsac valleys as the " :::i:::r ::n 
U:: :-- irate and swin'ller," and adviser of John Tabor Kemp, 
the Kin^s attorney during the Albany E;e::r:t::: Trials of 
-::.: ~v::m::^: :::i.::Imi766. 

Sa :: : h ?. : r n, 5r., wh: v in 1 "i:n awaiting the de- 
ci : r. : ' r :^'l ill wi:h : h - x and died, October 

27, 1767. xie was :u-hl in Bnnhiiis Burial-field, connected 
with Whiteheld's Chur h. This cemetery is said to contain 
the dust of several Am.ir::?.ns who have died in London, in- 
c! :li-:r Thn Bnnyan. Isaac Watts, and George Whitefield. 

I Mrmc "h — "- -c y^^r ?: 1767, iNIrs. Robinson's log- 
<: ' - ^ r - -^"te was threatened by packs erf 

h nnr ^c ires. Samuel RobinscHi, Jr.. and 
m. cr: .r.mr-i-iihrcrm ::eh the9ett1ers*c<^--^y form- 
ing a '^—----•^----x--' - \ra^-'.-a- ■--- at Old 
StC'in^ic- 7„-_ nr;::ia*:ei ::r :hr ir- ■ - - " "■ -rhce to^^vas 
en :hT i:-7.^ i~aters of hhe Hi'iia: ani "^h. i:.. mhuimg 
? r-^^^ff.l, Benninetcn. Stamford, Woodford, GIast:n::m; 
Sh-::ibt!Tv. A' .' c"::r. and ^Manchester. 

7::t :r_ :: : he Robins: r. Trraty,* dated at Ben- 

r-inc n. Xc : r 30. 1767. was ;r : ^ned by Leonard 
? : :: mi ; —.i : :r.T hmirri mi :ne settlers, in- 
C- : iir.c ^ : ?- r.i^ja. Jr., Moses and Silas Re : -: n :be 

Rev " lewey, Capt. John Fassett. Stephen Fay. Seth 

Warner . I Warner, Lieut. J c r:: r - ? - h.: -he. Brewster, 

S:ewart. o-Lmi::-.: Cochran. Henr^ ihucbeil, Sa5ord, 
Rufi H-- :i H.rm:n ani ::hrr5. 

-See Xoee 17 a- £=.1 ;: -^—t 



The Green Mountain Boys' Militia 279 

An effort was made by certain land-owners in 1786 to 
dispossess several occupants of their Pownal farms along 
the Twenty-iVlile Line. This resulted in the famous law- 
suit of Gen. Josiah Wright and Mr. Page against Joseph 
Wheeler and Amos Potter. Josiah and Solomon Wright 
were sons of Charles Wright of Pownal Tavern. Josiah 
fought in the Battle of Bennington and Solomon figured 
later in the Rutland and Pittsford sieges. Gen. Josiah 
Wright was subsequently elected Judge of the Probate 
Court, State Councillor, Judge of the County Court, and 
Presidential Elector in 1805 and 1813. He voted for both 
Jefferson and Madison and opened the first post-office of 
Pownal in a small room on the east side of his tavern, near 
the site of the late Hon. Amasa Thompson's residence. 
During 1807, he was chosen a commissioner by the Legis- 
lature to build the State's prison at Windsor. Solomon 
Wright was chosen Judge of Bennington County in 1 789 and 
Chief Judge in 18 14. The historian, Hiland Hall, considered 
him a man of unsurpassed eloquence and personal attraction. 
I The colonial mansion of the latter was the residence of Ruth, 
■ Sarah, and Ward Wright, and still stands on the comer of 
' Main and River streets, near the Hoosac River Bridge in 
the village of Pownal. 

The first company of Pownal militia was commanded 
: by Capt. Eli Noble. He resided in the gambrel-roofed house 
) on the Hill Road to Bennington, known as the Joseph Barber 
Place. The Committee of Safety, including Thomas 
Jewett, Ephraim Seelye, Jr., and Josiah Dunning, remained 
the "Court of Public Safety" until after Vermont's admit- 
tance to the Federal Union in 1791. 

I After the Revolution, the Freehold Court was appointed 

and a Statute of Limitation, requiring all Dutch and English 

proprietors residing on farms along the disputed Twenty- 

; Mile Line to close their adverse claims before a specified 



28o The Hoosac Valley 

date, was enacted. The Wheeler and Potter vs. Wright and 
Page case in Pownal came up for trial the last day of the 
appointed term. The Committee of Public Safety deter- 
mined that the Freehold Court should not assemble on the 
day specified. Two bands of fictitious Indians were organ 
ized by the Pownal militia, one to keep their neighbors 
under restraint and the other to guard the Mount Anthony 
Road and kidnap Sheriff Nathan Clark and Judge Isaac 
Tichenor of Bennington on their journey to the Pownal 
Court. David Stan wood, known as "Captain Pete," was 
the leader of the latter band of Indians. Sheriff Clark was 
allowed to escape. He hastened to Pownal, only to find 
another band of Indians in command of the Freehold; 
court-room. 

Darkness fell over the Mount Anthony Pass before "Cap-, 
tain Pete's" band allowed Judge Tichenor to make hisj 
escape to his home. An attempt was made later to appre- 
hend the ambuscaders in the farce, but no proof of the actors' 
identity could be secured and the matter passed in silence. 
The Pownal Committee of Safety for a number of year; 
thereafter exchanged sly winks whenever an allusion wael 
made to the "Statute of Limitation." 



CHAPTER XIV 

FIRST OPEN REBELLION AGAINST THE CROWN AT FORT 

BREAKENRIDGE 

I 766-1 775 

The Hampshire Grants, in particular, — a country unpeopled and almost un- 
known in the last war,-noiu abound, in the most active and most rebellious 
race on the continent, and hangs like a gathering storm on my left. — General 
Burgoyne's Letter to Lord Germaine. 

Ejectment Trials — Benningtonians' Rebellion — Albanians' Defeat^Green 
Mountain Boys' Militia — Reward Offered for Ethan Allen and his Cap- 
tains — Capture of Remember Baker — Ethan Allen's Remonstrance — ■ 
Rebellion of Berkshire Boys — Westminster Massacre — Battle of Lexing- 
ton — Albanians' Militia — Conference with Indians. 

THE Bennington settlers engaged Ethan Allen and Coun- 
cillor Ingersoll from Connecticut during the summer of 
1766, to defend their cause in the Albany Court of Eject- 
ment, They made their headquarters at the Truman 
Squire Inn, south of the Catamount Tavern. Allen pro- 
ceeded to Portsmouth and obtained copies of Gov. Benning 
Wentworth's Commission' of New Hampshire Grants and 
charters of the towns bordering the Twenty-Mile Line of 
New York. 

Several cases, however, had been prejudged, regardless of 
law or evidence, before Allen arrived at Albany. He retired 
from the court-room, but was waited upon during the evening 
by John Tabor Kemp, the King's attorney, and James 
Duane, representatives of Lieut. -Governor Colden's land- 
pirating league. Colden, according to documentary records, 
pocketed $25,000 in patent fees for his share in regranting 

' Hiland Hall, Early Hist. Vermont, App. 2, p. 476. 

281 



282 The Hoosac Valley 

the Benningtonians' farms to the Albany speculators. Kemp 
and Duane attempted to bribe Allen and Ingersoll. They 
told them to go home and advise the settlers to make the 
best terms that they could with their new landlords, signi- 
fying that "might often prevailed against right." Allen 
coolly replied "that the Gods of the valleys are not the 
Gods of the hills," Kemp desired an explanation of the 
challenging phrase, and Allen replied "that if he would 
accompany him to Bennington, the meaning should be made 
clear." 

Among the ejectment cases was one against Lieut. James 
Breakenridge of Irish Corners, now Riverside, in the north- 
west part of the town ; and another against Dr. Josiah Fuller, 
residing east of the present Thomas Jewett homestead, in 
the southeast part of the town. After Allen returned to 
Bennington Centre, the Council of Safety assembled at the 
Catamount Tavern, and the one hundred proprietors formally 
resolved that they would defend their rights with their lives. 

The serving of the King's Writs of Ejectment later was 
looked upon as a picnic. Capt. Abraham Cornelius Cuyler, 
the last Royal Mayor of the City of Albany, between 1770 
and 1778, appointed by Lieut. -Governor Colden, directed 
Sheriff Ten Eyck on July 28, 1 771 , to rally over three hundred 
variously armed Albany citizens, including councillors Peter 
Sylvester, John R. Bleecker, Robert Yates, and Christopher 
Yates. After the first day's march, they encamped at St. 
Croix Mills, six miles below Lieutenant Breakenridge's farm. 
Fifty envious inhabitants of Dutch Hoosac joined the Alban- 
ians at St. Croix and marched up the Walloomsac to Henry 
Bridge, a quarter of a mile north of Breakenridge's house. 

The Bennington militia was prepared to give the Albany 
speculators a warm reception. Captain Marvin's "Minute 
Men" from Stillwater had warned the Council of Safety of 
the Albanians' march, and the Breakenridge house was 




283 



284 



The Hoosac Valley 



converted into a fortified stronghold. Loopholes were made 
for small arms, and a red flag was adjusted to signal from 
the chimney-top for reinforcements. Breakenridge's house 
stood about a mile east of the Twenty-Mile Line, near the 




The Northern Portal of Henry Bridge, Irish Corners, now Riverside, West 
Bennington, Vermont. Here Col. Ethan Allen posted several of his Benning- 
tonian Sentinels, who demanded Sheriff Ten Eyck to halt his Regiment of 
Albanians on their march to serve the Crown s Writ of Ejectment on Lieut. 
James Breakenridge and Dr. Josiah Fuller, July 2g, 1771. It was here that the 
first armed resistance of the Green Mountain Boys agaitist the Qrown took place. 

homes of Col. Seth Warner and Lieut. William Henry, on the 
St. Croix and Bennington Centre Road. 

At the northern portal of Henry Bridge, Col. Ethan Allen 
posted six sentinels, who ordered Sheriff Ten Eyck to halt. 
A parley was held with Captain Cuyler and his councillors, 
after which it was agreed that they might be conducted 
without arms to Lieutenant Breakenridge's house, to hold 
a conference with the Bennington Council of Safety. Sheriff 
Ten Eyck inquired the cause of the assemblage of the Ben- 



First Open Rebellion against the Crown 285 

! nington militia to prevent his serving the Crown's Writ of 

i 

! Ejectment, to which Breakenridge repHed "that the town- 
ship had resolved to take his farm under their protection, 
and that they intended to keep it." 

Mayor Cuyler of Albany exclaiined that "whatever blood 
should be spilled in opposing the King's Writ would be 
required from his hands." It was finally agreed that Break- 
enridge should hold a conference with his friends and that 
Mayor Cuyler and his councillors should be escorted to 
Henry Bridge and wait half an hour for his decision. Break- 
enridge's messenger reported that neither his nor the Fuller 
farm would be given up but that they would be kept at any 
cost. Captain Cuyler ordered his regiment to march for- 
ward, although only thirty of the three hundred and fifty 
men proved courageous enough to venture over Henry 
Bridge. Sheriff Ten Eyck headed the band up to the barri- 
caded door of the Breakenridge house and attorney Robert 
Yates used many ingenious arguments, drawn from similar 
cases in his knowledge of the legal lore of piracy, in order 
to convince the Benningtonians that the Albanians had a 
legal right to eject them from their farms and appropriate 
their vineyards and onion crops for themselves, unless the 
Benningtonians repurchased their lands again of the Dutch 
claimants. Col. Ethan Allen used equally convincing ora- 
tory in refuting these contentions. 

Sheriff Ten Eyck seized an axe and threatened to break 
down the barricaded door of Breakenridge's house. The 
garrison hoisted the red flag from the chimney-top as a signal 
to the soldiers posted thirty rods distant along the edge of 
the woods, and a hundred polished rifles were immediately 
aimed at Ten Eyck. This sobered the "Bully Boys of 
Helderberg" and Ten Eyck retired with his men to Henry 
Bridge. Mayor Cuyler formally requested his troops to 
march five miles farther southeast and serve the King's 



286 The Hoosac Valley 

Writ of Ejectment upon Dr. Fuller, but they refused and 
returned to Albany before sunrise on July 30, 1771. 

After the defeat of the Yorkers, a Grand Committee was 
organized in the New Hampshire Grants and a regiment 
of three hundred Green Mountain Boys formed. Seth 
Warner commanded the Bennington company; EH Noble, 
the Pownal company; Remember Baker, the Arlington 
company; Robert Cochran, the Rupert company; Gideon 
Warren, the Sunderland company, and Dr. Ebenezer Marvin 
the Stillwater company of " Minute Men" on the New York 
borders. John J. Bleecker, Ignace Kipp, Isaac Clark, 
Eleazar Eggerton, and Nathaniel Schipman, ' Jr., were among 
the Dutch Hoosac scouts; and Peleg Sunderland, John Smith, 
and Sylvanus Brown were the scouts of the Bennington 
Council of Safety. A general military organization of the 
Green Mountain Boys' militia took place in 1772, and Ethan 
Allen was elected colonel of the regiment. Governor Try on 
of New York later published a proclamation, offering a 
reward of £50 each for Allen and his captains of the 
"Bennington Mob." 

Colonel Allen, in daring mockery of Tryon's proclamation, 
distributed printed handbills offering a reward of £15 for 
the capture of the King's attorney, John Tabor Kemp, and 
£10 for James Duane, — "those common disturbers of public 
peace," if delivered at Fay's Catamount Tavern at Benning- 
ton. The Tory justice, John Munroe of Shaftsbury, super- 
intendent of Lieut. Duncan McVicar's Clarendon and 
Durham manors, engaged a band of fifteen Yorkers and 
captured Capt. Remember Baker of Arlington, March 22, 
1772. Baker was routed from bed and seized by a blood- 
hound and threatened with instant death if he made an 
outcry. They bound Baker without his coat, and his right 
thumb was severed during the act. Upon bidding farewell 

' Also spelled Chipman. 



First Open Rebellion against the Crown 287 

to his wife and children, Justice Munroe consoled them 
v/ith the promise of Baker's immediate execution as soon as 
he was lodged in Albany Jail. 

Munroe's men made so much noise that Baker's neigh- 
bors, Caleb Henderson and John Winston, arrived armed 
with their rifles, Winston was seized and bound with Baker, 
but Henderson made his escape to Bennington Centre with 
news of Baker's capture. At twelve o'clock the scouts 
of the Council of Safety, including the subsequently titled 
Gen. Isaac Clark, Col. Joseph Safford, Maj. Wait Hopkins, 
Col. David Safford, Timothy Abbott, Stephen Hopkins, 
Elanthan Hubbell, Samuel Tubbs, Ezekiel Brewster, and 
Nathaniel Holmes mounted their swiftest horses. The 
rescuing party, after a thirty-mile ride, arrived at the Hudson 
River before three o'clock, and found that Munroe's bandits 
had not crossed the ferry. They turned and galloped north- 
ward and soon met Munroe and recovered Baker more dead 
than alive. Ethan Allen published an account of Baker's 
capture in the Connecticut Courant^ at the time. 

After Baker's rescue Governor Tryon proposed to hear 
the complaints of the Benningtonians. Parson Jedidiah 
Dewey, Ethan Allen, Robert Cochran, and Remember 
Baker prepared a petition of personal grievances, dated 
June 5, 1772, and Capt. Stephen Fay and his son. Dr. Jonas 
Fay, conveyed it to Governor Tryon. He suspended all 
prosecutions in behalf of the Crown, and the Bennington 
settlers assembled at the meeting-house and offered thanks. 

At the same time that Governor Tryon made overtures 
of peace to the Green Mountain Boys, his surveyor Cock- 
burn was locating patents in the Champlain Valley. Capts. 
Seth Warner and Remember Baker chased Cockburn to 
Lake George and captured him in Bolton. He was brought 

' H. W. DePuy, " Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys of '76," 
1853, Vermont Historical Magazine, p. 125. 



288 The Hoosac Valley 

to Castleton and tried before the Beach-Seal Court, con- 
victed, punished with the "Twigs of the Wilderness," and 
banished from the Green Mountains upon pain of death if 
he returned. Lieut. James Breakenridge of Bennington and 
Jehiel Hawley of Arlington were chosen as delegates later 
to visit England and petition the King in Council for pro- 
tection against the piracy of the Yorkers. 

Ira Allen arrived at Bennington Centre in 1771. During 
the autumn of 1772 he joined his brothers and cousins 
in the Onion or Winooski River Land Company, heading off 
the land-claimants. He resided with Remember Baker at 
Colchester's Falls in 1773, and discovered Colonel Reid's 
Mills near Otter Creek Falls, now the site of the City of 
Vergennes, Vt. Col. Ethan Allen called out his militia and 
Reid's Scotch settlers were routed. His mill-stones were 
broken, and Colonel Reid was threatened with death if he 
dared to return. 

On March 9, 1774, the Albany Legislature, therefore, 
passed an Act of Outlawry. According to Samuel Williams's 
History of Vermont in 1794, it was the "most mandatory and 
despotic of anything that had ever appeared in the British 
Colonies." Col. Ethan Allen and Capts. Warner, Baker, 
Cochran, Warren, Noble, Sunderland, Smith, Brown, and 
Marvin were convicted of felony without trial. Governor 
Tryon offered a reward of £150 for Allen's capture and £50 
for the capture of each of his captains. 

A sarcastic proclamation was prepared by Colonel Allen, 
declaring that: 

Printed sentences of death are not very alarming . . . 
if the governor sends his executioners, they have only to try 
the titles to see who shall prove to be the criminals and die 
first; and if the authorities of New York insist upon killing 
us to take possession of our vineyards, come on, we are 
ready with a game of scalping with them. 



First Open Rebellion against the Crown 289 

Tom Rowley, the Green Mountain poet laureate, added the 
following Satire to the famous historic document. 

When Caesar reigned King of Rome, 
St. Paul was sent to hear his doom, 
But Roman laws, in a criminal case 
Must have the accuser face to face. 
Or Caesar gives flat denial. 
But, here 's a law made now of late 
Which destines men to awful fate; 
And hangs and damns without a trial. 
Which made me view all nature through 
To find a law where men were ti'd, 
By legal act which doth exact 
Men's lives before they 're tried. 
Then down I took the sacred book 
And turned the pages o'er 
But could not find one of this kind 
By God or Man before. . . . 

Ethan Allen's Remonstrance followed the Satire. In it he 
and his captains declared : 

We now proclaim to the public, not only for ourselves 

but the New Hampshire grantees and occupants in general, 

that the spring and moving cause of our opposition to the 

government of New York was self-preservation; namely, 

first, the preservation and maintenance of our property; 

and, secondly, since that government is so incensed against 

us, therefore it stands us in hand to defend our lives. For 

it appears, by a late set of laws passed by the legislature 

thereof, that the lives and property of the New Hampshire 

settlers are manifestly struck at. But, that the public may 

rightly understand the essence of the controversy, we now 

proclaim to these law-givers, and to the World, that if the 

New York Patentees will remove their patents, that have 

been subsequently lapped and laid on the New Hampshire 
19 



290 The Hoosac Valley 

Charters, and quiet us in our possessions, agreeably to hi : 
Majesty's directions, and suspend those criminal prosecu- n 
tions against us for being rioters, as we are unjustly 
denominated, then will our settlers be orderly and sub- 
missive subjects of Government. But be it known to that 
despotic fraternity of law-makers and law-breakers, that 
we will not be fooled nor frightened out of our property. 

The Colonial Government of Massachusetts Bay came 
to an end on August i6, 1774, when the Berkshire militia 
drove the judges of the Crown from the court-house in Old 
Stockbridge. Later, on September 25, 1776, it proved 
necessary to build a jail to secure the Tories on the east 
side of the Green Moimtains. 

Several Tories resided in Pownal, Shaftsbury, and Arling- 
ton, on the borders of New York, The venerable Dr. 
Samuel Adams of Arlington advised the settlers to repur- 
chase their farms of the New^ York claimants. He was tied 
in an arm-chair and hoisted twenty-five feet to the top of 
the Catamount Tavern sign-post for his council, to the 
merriment of a large crowed. After tW'O hours disgrace he 
was low^ered and advised to "go and sin no more." Elder 
Benjamin Hough, the first minister of the Baptist Church 
of Durham Manor, now Shaftsbury, accepted a commission 
as a New York justice, January 22, 1775. In consequence, 
he was tied to a sour-apple tree in Sunderland four days later, 
and received tw^o hundred stripes of the "Twigs of the 
Wilderness" on his back. He w^as banished from the regioi 
forever, but later preached at Mapleton Baptist Church ir 
Hoosac, N. Y. 

Samuel Adams of Boston, Father of the Revolution, wai 
a kinsman of Dr. Samuel Adams of Arlington. He, however 
inspired the spirit of independence and unity among th< 
colonists, and eight months before the Battle of Lexington 
the first Continental Congress met at Philadelphia ii 



First Open Rebellion against the Crown 291 

September, 1774. 0^ March 14, 1775, the Albany Council 
attempted to rule the Westminster Court on the east side 
of the Green Mountains, although the settlers had passed 
resolutions in sympathy with the American patriots and 
desired to suspend Court sessions. 

The Sheriff of Albany County headed his militia and, 
after demanding entrance to the Westminster Court House 
a second time without gaining admittance, ordered his men 
to fire upon the settlers. Ten were wounded, William French 
and another man dying from their wounds. 

Over five hundred armed settlers from the Green Moun- 
tains, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts arrived at West- 
minster the following morning. This massacre was followed 
on April 19, 1775, by the firing of Major Pitcairn's pistols, 
opening the Battle of Lexington. Pitcairn's pistols were 
presented to Gen. Israel Putnam after the battle, and de- 
scended to his son, Peter Schuyler Putnam of Williamstown, 
and later to his grandson, John Pope Putnam, a resident 
of Cambridge, N. Y., until his death in 1868. 

News of the Battle of Lexington reached Albany, May i, 
I775> whereupon the Committee of Safety met at John 
Lansing's Inn. Lucas Cassidy was sent forth to beat a 
drum and John Ostrander to ring a bell to summon the 
inhabitants to the market-house. The Albanians wrote 
the Boston Committee of War that: "They desired to pro- 
mote the weal of the American Cause," and since they were 
born free, they proclaimed that, "they would live and die so, 
and transmit that inestimable blessing to posterity."^ 

On May 4, 1775, the Albany Committee organized a regu- 
lar militia. Directly after the Battle of Bunker Hill in June, 
both Boston and New York harbors were fortified, although 
William Tryon arrived from England and took the Great 
Seal as the last Royal Governor of New York. 
'Cuyler Reynolds, Albany Chronicles, pp. 274-275. 



292 The Hoosac Valley 

Maj.-Gen. Philip Schuyler, Maj. Joseph Hawley, Talbot 
Francis, Oliver Wolcott, and Volckert Douw, on August 15th, 
held a conference with the Mahican and Mohawk sachems 
at the Old Dutch Church, in Albany, in order to tell them 
the cause of the Revolution against King George. They 
said: 

Many of his councillors are proud and wicked men. . . . 
They tell us now that they will slip their hands into our 
pockets, without asking, as if they were their own pockets, 
and will take at their pleasure from us our charters . . . 
our plantations, our houses and goods, whenever they please, 
without asking our permission. . . . This is a family quarrel 
between us and Old England! You Indians are not con- 
cerned in it. We do not want you to take up the hatchet 
against the king's troops. We desire that you remain at 
home and join neither party, but keep the hatchet deeply 
buried. ' 

'Cuyler Reynolds, Albany Chronicles, pp. 277-278. 



CHAPTER XV 

THE HEROES OF FORT TICONDEROGA/ MAY lO 

1775 

But for you, there is no middle fortune between death and victory. Let this be 
hut well fixed in your minds, and once again I say you are conquerors! — Hanni- 
bal's Address to the Carthaginians, before their March against the Roman 
Capitol. 

Samuel Adams — John Brown — James Easton of Massachusetts — Samuel 
Parsons — Edward Mott — Noah Phelps of Connecticut — Ethan Allen — - 
Seth Warner — -Samuel Herrick of Vermont — ^Rallying Salisbury, Berk- 
shire, and Bennington Boys— Benedict Arnold and Colonial Rivalry — 
Surrender of Ticonderoga to Ethan x\llen — ^Capture of Ethan Allen 
by the British at Montreal, September 25, 1775 — The Hero of Fort 
Ticonderoga. 

THE inhabitants of the Hoosac and Walloomsac valleys 
proved the first to take definite action against the 
oppressors of the Crown. The first Revolutionary Councils 
of Safety met between Salisbury, Pittsfield, Williamstown, 
and Bennington Centre. 

Dr. Samuel Adams, the "Father of the Revolution," 
assembled with Joseph Warren and others of Massachusetts, 
February 15, 1775, to consider diplomatic correspondence 
with the Canadian officials before the formal Declaration 
of American Independence. John Brown of Pittsfield, a 
spirited young lawyer lately graduated from Yale, was 

' Rev. Zadoc Thompson, Lecture at Unveiling of Kinney's Statue of Ethan 
Allen at Burhngton, Vermont, March i6, 1852; Gov. Hiland Hall, "The Hero 
of Ticonderoga in 1775," Vt. Hist. Soc. October 18, 1869; Hon. L. E. Chit- 
tenden, " Who Took Ticonderoga?" Vt. Hist. Soc, Oct. 8, 1872; Prof. A. L. 
Perry, Williamstown and Williams College, pp. 32, 33, 60, 1899. 

293 



294 The Hoosac Valley 

appointed to convey the letters of the Boston Committee 
of War to Canada during the latter part of February. He 
was also advised to make observations of the strength of the 
British fortress on Lake Champlain. 

On his march northward, Brown consulted with the Coun- 
cils of Safety at Williamstown and at Bennington. Col. 
Ethan Allen of the latter place appointed Peter Sunderland, 
one of his trusted messengers, to accompany Brown to 
Canada. Allen assured Brown that if the sum of £300 were 
advanced to equip an expedition against Fort Ticonderoga, 
he would lead his Green Mountain Boys' militia against 
the formidable fortress. Brown despatched a letter to 
Adams and Warren of the Boston Council and advised 
a speedy reduction of Fort Ticonderoga, before colonial 
hostilities began. 

The messages of the Councils of Safety during the Revo- 
lution were executed with speed and secrecy. Col. Samuel 
H. Parsons, an assemblyman of Connecticut, while returning 
from Massachusetts to Hartford, April 26, 1775, met Bene- 
dict Arnold, a flour merchant of New Haven, marching with 
a band of volunteers to Cambridge, Mass. Arnold reported 
the weakened condition of Fort Ticonderoga to Assembly- 
man Parsons, and remarked that the cannon would be useful 
for the Continental Army. He made no allusion, however, 
to his own secret dreams of capturing the Fort. 

In a letter addressed to Joseph Trumbull in June, Assem- 
blyman Parsons affirms that he arrived at Hartford, Thurs- 
day morning, April 27th, after meeting Arnold. He held 
a council with his friends. Col. Sam Wyllys and Mr. Dean, 
and stated that: "They first undertook and projected the 
taking of Ticonderoga." He consulted Thomas Mumford, 
Christopher Leffingwell, and Adam Babcock later, and they 
obtained the required sum of £300 to finance the expedition 
on their personal notes from the Connecticut Treasury. 



The Heroes of Fort Ticonderoga 295 

The sum of money was entrusted to Adam Babcock, Noah 
Phelps, and Bernard Romans on Friday, April 28th, and 
they marched to Col. Ethan Allen at Bennington as advance 
messengers from Capt, Edward Mott of the Hartford Coun- 
cil of Safety. Salisbury, Conn., was at that time the home 
of Heman and Levi Allen. Heman Allen joined Adam 
Babcock and his party the next day and pushed on to locate 
Ethan Allen and his captains. 

Heman Allen, on his march to Bennington, enlisted young 
Josiah Dunning, a member of Capt. Eli Noble's Pownal 
company of militia. He organized a volunteer company and 
chose Samuel Wright, eldest son of Landlord Charles Wright, 
as their captain, and marched direct to Castle ton, twenty- 
five miles east of Fort Ticonderoga. Josiah Dunning, then 
twenty years of age, was a son of Michael Dunning from 
Newton, Conn,, who settled on a farm at the foot of North- 
west Hill, opposite the "Weeping Rocks" in Pownal, Vt., 
during 1762. 

Captain Mott arrived at Salisbury and was joined by Levi 
Allen and fifteen other volunteers before he reached Pitts- 
field, where he held a council of war with John Brown and 
Col. James Easton. Colonel Easton rallied sixty Berkshire 
Boys in Lanesboro, Cheshire, Adams, New Ashford, Han- 
cock, and Williamstown. 

Capt. William Douglass and his Hancock company, 
together with Capt. Israel Harris's Williamstown volunteers, 
included several soldiers who subsequently fought in the 
Battle of Bennington. Captain Harris in 1775 was twenty- 
eight years of age and hailed from Cornwall, Conn., the 
home of the Allen brothers. He was a brother-in-law of 
Clark Morse, the hatter, who settled in Williamstown, on 
Northwest Hill, two miles south of Michael Dunning's Pownal 
farm. 

Captain Mott and Colonel Easton, with their seventy-six 



296 The Hoosac Valley 

Salisbury and Berkshire volunteers, assembled on the 
Square in Williamstown before they marched to Bennington 
Centre. Noah Phelps, Adam Babcock, Bernard Romans, and 
Heman Allen had meanwhile marched forward to act their 
part. Heman Allen located his brother, Ethan Allen, in 
Arlington; Noah Phelps and Bernard Romans were sent to 
reconnoitre Fort Ticonderoga, and Adam Babcock awaited 
the arrival of Ethan Allen at the Catamount Tavern at 
Bennington Centre. Bernard Romans, one of the first 
American map-makers, was a friend of Benedict Arnold. 
He was in an envious mood and deserted Noah Phelps on 
his march to the Fort. Arnold reports that he sent him 
later to Albany.' Captain Mott recorded that his men 
were "all glad" when Romans deserted the expedition, 
since he had caused much trouble on the march. Romans 
was falsely reported by Arnold's admirers as "the emi- 
nent engineer and leading spirit" of the Ticonderoga ex- 
pedition. 

Colonel Allen and Captains Warner and Herrick were 
on hand at the Catamount Tavern to welcome Captain 
Mott, Colonel Easton, John Brown, and Captains Douglass 
and Harris. It was one of the most famous councils of 
war in the history of the Revolution. Colonel Allen later 
sent Gershorm Beach of Rutland, a fleet-footed messenger, \ 
to rally the Green Mountain Boys' militia. Within twenty- j 
four hours he covered a circuit of sixty miles between ' 
Castleton, Rutland, Pittsford, Brandon, Middlebury, and 
Whiting to Hand's Cove in Shoreham, on the east shore of 
Lake Champlain, opposite Fort Ticonderoga. 

Beach was an intimate friend of the Tory, Maj. Philip 
Skene, and visited Skenesboro Manor now Whitehall, Sat- 
urday, May 6th. Major Skene was not at home, but his 
son informed Beach that he was momentarily expected, 

» See Note 18 at end of volume. 



J 




Col. Ethan Allen, the Hero of Fort Ticonderoga, in the act of demanding 
the surrender of Captain Be Laplace and his British Garrison and Flag at 
Fort Ticonderoga, May lo, 1775- 

To-morrmu eve must the voice he still, In Ticonderoga s towers, 

And the step must fall unheard. And ere the sun rise twice again, 

The Briton lies by the blue Champlain, Must they and their lake he ours. 

Bryant: The Green Mountain Boys, at the Castleton Council held 
Monday evening, May 8, 1775. 

297 



298 The Hoosac Valley I 

adding that his father was to be appointed Governor of New 
York, and that it was proposed to rebuild the fortresses at 
Ticonderoga and at Crown Point. 

Within seventy-five hours after Beach completed his 
circuit the Green Mountain Boys rallied, Sunday evening, 
May 7th, at Castleton, sixty miles north of Bennington, 
and less than twenty-five miles east of Fort Ticonderoga. 
A council of war was held, Monday evening, May 8th. 
Capt. Edward Mott of the Connecticut Committee of War 
was chosen chairman. 

It was formally voted that Colonel Allen should be first 
in command of the expedition ; Colonel Easton, second ; and 
Captain Warner, third, — ranking according to the number 
of their volunteers enlisted. Each company was assigned 
a special part in the expedition. Capt. Samuel Herrick of 
Bennington was sent with thirty men to seize Major Skene 
and his boats about East Bay, which were to be rowed down 
Lake Champlain to Shoreham before dawn, May loth, in 
order to convey Allen's militia over the lake to surprise 
the garrison of Fort Ticonderoga. Captain Douglass of the 
Hancock company was appointed to visit his brother-in-law, 
Smith, residing at Brideport, twelve miles down Lake 
Champlain, and endeavor by some stratagem to get pos- 
session of the King's boats at Crown Point and row them 
up to Shoreham before light on May loth. 

Capt. Noah Phelps, in the habit of a Yankee farmer, visited 
Fort Ticonderoga meanwhile and observed the garrison's 
strength. He engaged the lad, Nathan Beeman, to meet 
Col. Ethan Allen and his militia before sunrise on May loth 
and conduct them through the wicket gate to the British 
stronghold. Phelps affected a most awkward appearance 
and inquired for a barber, under the pretence of desiring to 
be shaved. He amused the gallants of Old England with his 
simple questions and meanwhile observed the position of 



The Heroes of Fort Ticonderoga 299 

the artillery. He certainly returned to Colonel Allen's 
camp a type of those Yankee varlets of Connecticut de- 
scribed by Washington Irving as belonging to the Dutch 
period of "Fort Good Hope." 

After the close of the Castleton Council, May 8th, a gust 
of confusion arose with the arrival of Benedict Arnold. He 
w as clad in a colonel's epauletted uniform, accompanied by 
a colored servant. Each was mounted upon a very much 
winded steed. Arnold presented Chairman Mott his Massa- 
chusetts Commission ' as colonel of an expedition to be sent 
against Fort Ticonderoga. He claimed that it gave him 
the right to command Colonel Allen's Green Mountain 
Boys' militia, financially equipped by the Connecticut Com- 
mittee of War. 

Colonial rivalry, personal honor, and national glory 
were all at stake. The consternation of Chairman Mott 
and Colonel Allen's Green Mountain Boys was intense. 
The latter swore in chorus that rather than be led by Col- 
onel Arnold against Ticonderoga, they would disband and 
return to their homes. Arnold's Commission advised him 
"to enlist his own men, not to exceed four hundred," at the 
expense of the Massachusetts Congress, and he was directed 
' ' to act according to best skill and discretion for publick in- 
terest." Chairman Mott called a second council, and it was 
decided that Benedict Arnold should join the expedition, 
with rank of colonel, but without separate command. 
It was, however, voted that Colonel Allen should head 
the central file; Colonel Easton, the right file; and 
Colonel Arnold, the left file, upon marching against Fort 

j. Ticonderoga. 

' After Benedict Arnold held his interview with Assembly- 
man Parsons of Connecticut, April 26th, he proceeded to the 
Massachusetts Committee of War at Cambridge and re- 

' See Note 19 at end of volume. 



300 The Hoosac Valley 

vealed his plans for capturing Fort Ti. His Commission, ^ 
dated May 3, 1775, was signed by Chairman Benjamin 
Church, Jr., and Secretary WilHam Cooper of the Committee 
of Safety. He was assigned a colonel's uniform, a colored 
servant, steed, and funds to enlist his own volunteers. 

Col. Benedict Arnold journeyed from Cambridge to Old 
Deerfield; thence over Hoosac Mountain to Williamstown. 
According to his Bill of Expenses,^ he left £18 with Captain 
Oswold, May 4th, to rally his Shrewsbury militia, and on 
May 6th, Arnold crossed the Deerfield ferry and breakfasted 
at Landlord Talah Barnard's Tavern in Old Deerfield Village. 
He purchased a herd of fat cattle of Thomas W. Dickenson, 
and engaged him and his brother. Consider, to drive thef 
herd to Fort Ticonderoga. The bargain, with usual "toddy- 
sticks," was confirmed over the bar in the North Room of the 
inn. Meanwhile the Negro servant had the horses shod 
and they rode over Hoosac Mountain. 

While at Capt. Moses Rice's Charlemont Inn, Arnold 
enlisted a lad named White, who became the grandfather 
of Joseph White, the late Treasurer of Williams College. 
Young White marched to Ticonderoga in less than a week 
and was present at Allen's and Arnold's contest for the 
rights of command of the captured Fort. He related to 
his grandson that Col. Ethan Allen "lacked grit," and that 
Allen made concession to Arnold by finally, on May 13th, 
placing him in command of Crown Point and the Lake 
Champlain schooner. 

Colonel Arnold arrived at Capt. Nehemiah Smedley's 
Green River homestead in Williamstown on the evening 
of MS,y 6th. Smedley's ^ house was not finished until after 
the surrender of the British at Old Saratoga in i ']']'], although 
the cellar kitchen in 1775, with its large stone oven, was in 

' See Note 19 at end of volume. * See Note 18 at end of volume. 

^ See illustration, Chapter VIII. 



The Heroes of Fort Ticonderoga 301 

baking order. Arnold left £3 with Captain Smedley, accord- 
ing to his Bill of Expenses, to bake a batch of rye and 
Indian bread, to be forwarded later by the Dickenson 
brothers to Fort Ticonderoga. 

It was in Williamstown that Colonel Arnold first heard 
of Capt. Edward Mott's Connecticut council of war and 
Colonel Easton's and Colonel Allen's rally of the Berkshire 
and Bennington Boys. In consequence, Arnold headed his 
steed direct for Castleton early on May 7th. 

The Green Mountain Boys forced Arnold to accept his 
fate after the second Castleton Council, May 8th. It was 
late before Captain Herrick's party set out that night and 
captured Maj. Philip Skene. A guard was placed in com- 
mand of Skene's Whitehall Manor and all available boats 
were seized and rowed to Shoreham. Major Skene and his 
two lieutenants were escorted by Captain Nichols and Lieu- 
tenants Hickok and Halsey to Gov. Jonathan Trumbull at 
Hartford, Conn., where they arrived, May 12th. 

It proved a serious problem to seize boats sufficient in 
number to convey all of Colonel Allen's regiment over Lake 
Champlain to Fort Ticonderoga before the dawn. Capt. 
William Douglass, on the evening of May 8th, marched toward 
Crown Point. He stopped at the home of Capt. John Chip- 
man, ' undoubtedly a son of the famous Tory hunter-scout, 
Nathaniel Bumppo-Shipman, Sr., of Fahs Quequick in 
Dutch Hoosac. Douglass confided his scheme of capturing 
the King's boats at Crown Point, and his conversation was 
overheard by James Wilcox and Joseph Tyler. These lads 
conceived of a secret plan of decoying Old Black Tom, the 
commander of Major Skene's oar-boat near Willow Point. 
They hastily dressed, seized their guns and a jug of rum — 
the latter known to be the most powerful weapon with which 
to waylay Tom and his oarsmen. On their journey Wilcox 

'Also spelled Shipman or Schipman. 



302 The Hoosac Valley 

and Tyler were joined by four neighboring boys. Old 
Tom was soon hailed and the boys offered to help row his 
boat to Shoreham if he would carry them immediately to 
join a hunting party awaiting them at that place. This 
stratagem proved successful, with the aid of the "little 
bro^ATi jug." 

Captain Douglass and his party meanwhile secured a 
scow and a few small boats at Brideport, and Noah Phelps 
and Nathan Beeman posted at their appointed places, 
quietly fishing on Lake Champlain, greatly aided the expe- 
dition. About one hundred and eighty troopers assembled 
at Shoreham before dawTi, May loth, ready to advance 
against the Fort, and several of Arnold's volunteers arrived 
also the next morning. 

The boats at Shoreham conveyed only eighty-three men 
over the Lake, including Colonel Allen, Captain Alott, 
Colonel Easton, and Colonel Arnold, and their men. Capt. 
Seth Warner's volunteers awaited the return of the boats 
to convey them later, but time was precious and the big 
oar-boats moved slowly. The rising sun brightening the 
horizon led Colonel Allen to hold a council of war. It was 
hastily agreed that if they delayed until Warner's troops 
arrived, Captain De Laplace and his British garrison would 
be astir. 

Colonel Allen speedily formed his eighty-three men into 
three files, headed by Nathan Beeman and himself. The 
road leading from the Lake Champlain landing permitted 
three men to march abreast. But before marching orders 
were given, Colonel Allen inspired his Green Mountain Boys. 
He said: 

Friends and fellow soldiers, you have, for a number of 
years past, been a scourge and terror to arbitrary power. 
Your valor has been famed abroad, and acknowledged, 



The Heroes of Fort Ticonderoga 303 

as appears by the advice and orders to me from the General 
Assembly of Connecticut to surprise and take the garrison 
now before us. I now propose to advance before you, and 
in person conduct you through the wicket gate ; for we must 
this morning either quit our pretensions to valor, or possess 
ourselves of this fortress in a few moments; and, inasmuch 
as it is a desperate attempt, which none but the bravest of 
men dare undertake, I do not urge it on any one contrary 
to his will. You that will undertake voluntarily, poise your 
firelocks.^ 

Colonel Allen and Nathan Beeman lead the central file 
of the troops through the wicket gate to the Fortress. The 
garrison still slept, all save the single sentry, and Captain 
De Laplace was soon aroused by three hearty cheers from 
the Green Mountain Boys, drawn up in battle order within 
the Fortress's parade. Captain De Laplace's quarters were 
soon located, and in rough and stentorian voice Colonel 
Allen commanded the "old rat" to get out of bed instantly 
and surrender the Fort, or he would sacrifice the garrison. 
De Laplace appeared at his barrack door with his trousers 
in his hands, and inquired by what authority the surrender 
was demanded. Colonel Allen replied rotundly : " In the name 
of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress!" That 
authoritative demand, with Allen's sword raised defiantly 
over his head, proved too much for Captain De Laplace, 
and he surrendered the Fortress without the firing of a single 
gun. Captain Warner's troops arrived soon after Colonel 
Allen captured the first British flag of the Revolution. 

It is better for Arnold's ill-fame to-day that he be for- 
gotten. One of his champions, known as "Veritas," was 
Capt, Israel Harris of Williamstown. In 1832, Harris 
applied for a Revolutionary pension. He often related to 
his grandsons. Prof. James Butler of the University of Wis- 

* Col. Ethan Allen, Narrative of Captivity. 



304 The Hoosac Valley 

consin and the Rev. Dr. Jonathan Harris Butler of Schagh- 
ticoke, that he was the third man in single file to enter the 
gate of Fort Ticonderoga, and that only Arnold and Allen 
preceded him. "Veritas"^ reported that Colonel Arnold 
rushed five yards and entered the Fortress ahead of Colonel 
Allen. 

After the surrender of Fort Ticonderoga, May 10, 1775, 
Allen wrote a letter to the "Committee of Correspondence 
for the City and County of Albany." He described the 
manner in which he and Colonel Easton surprised the Fort, 
and added that Colonel Arnold was present. 

Capt. Edward IVlott, chairman of the Connecticut Council, 
commissioned Colonel Allen Commander of Fort Ticon- 
deroga, May 10, 1775, until further orders from the "Con- 
tinental Congress." Later Colonel Hinman of Connecticut 
took command of Ticonderoga and Crown Point, and the 
Allen and Easton troops were dismissed, although Capt. 
Samuel Wright's Pownal company, according to Josiah 
Dunning's application for a pension in 1827, remained in 
service a few weeks longer. Dunning was present. May 
nth, when Arnold claimed Allen's right to command the 
Fortress by virtue of his Commission from the Massachusetts 
Council. "Allen and Arnold had dra^vn their swords, and 
the men under their command had raised and cocked their 
muskets and presented their bayonets, when a private, 
named Edward Richards, stepped forward with great firm- 
ness, commanded both officers to put up their swords, and 
ordered the soldiers of both parties to arrest the two leaders 
if they did not immediately desist."^ They retired and 
agreed upon fighting a duel later. 

'"Veritas," "Report of Capture of Fort Ticonderoga, May 10, 1775,' 
Am. Archives, Series 4, vol. ii., p. 1086. Cited in Perry's Williamstown and 
Williams College, pp. 32-33. 

' Perry, Williamstown and Williams College, p. 60. 










Z-d/er of Co/. £/Zfa7J y4//ew, addressed to the Committee of Correspondence for 
t City and County of Albany, dated May lo, i77S, after his capture of the first 
llHsh Flag during the Revolution, and the Surrender of Fori Ticonderoga. 

30 



305 



I 

306 The Hoosac Valley j 

Crown Point was captured by Seth Warner's and Remem- 
ber Baker's companies, May 12th. Owing to Arnold'^, 
superior skill in navigation, he was placed in command ol 
Crown Point and the Lake Champlain schooner; and Allen 
in command of Skene's fleet of large boats. Arnold capture; 
a British vessel in the harbor of St. Johns, Canada, and il 
his party had been a trifle larger, he might have becomd 
master of that city. Capt. Samuel Wright's Pownal com-j 
pany accompanied Arnold to St. Johns and after th^^ii 
return to Crown Point, Josiah Dunning was engaged on Lake 
Champlain's boats until discharged in September. The 
Berkshire and Bennington Boys reorganized later unclci 
Colonels Simonds, Easton, Allen, and Warner. ; 

Colonel Allen's Letter, addressed to the "Albany Gentle- 
men," after the surrender of Fort Ticonderoga, was utterl}* 
ignored. In it he said : 

As your county is nearer than any other part of the Colo- 
nies, and your inhabitants have thoroughly manifested theii 
zeal in the cause of their country, I expect immediate assis- 
tance from you, both in men and provision. You cannot 
exert yourselves too much in so glorious a cause. . . . Pra^ 
be quick to our relief, and send five hundred men imme- 
diately. 



Colonel Hinman from Connecticut soon took command! 
of the Fort, and Colonel Allen and Captain Warner attendee] 
the Continental Congress at Philadelphia, when the Green 
Mountain Boys were paid for their services at Fort Ticon- 
deroga. The President of Congress, however, advised the 
Provincial Congress of New York to organize a regiment and] 
choose officers and men from Colonel Allen's Green Moun- 
tain Boys. ! 

The Provincial Regiment was organized, but Seth Wamei 
was chosen colonel. Allen rose above this military slight and 



The Heroes of Fort Ticonderoga 307 

I assured Gen. Philip Schuyler that he desired to remain in the 
■ service. General Schuyler was ill at this time and appointed 
General Montgomery and Colonel Hinman to command Col. 
' Seth Warner's regiment at Fort Ticonderoga and Crown 
Point. Capt. Remember Baker's scouting party from Col- 
chester was sent in August, 1775, to locate General Carle- 
ton's encampment near St. Johns. Baker left his boat near 
the Isle aux Noix, four miles above the city, and a party 
I of Indians stole it the next morning and sent a ball through 
I Baker's head. Capt. Remember Baker was a soldier in Colonel 
Wooster's Connecticut Regiment, and he and Israel Putnam 
were known as the avengers of Lord Howe's death in 1758. 
During October, 1775, a soldier of Colonel Warner's Continen- 
tal Regiment killed the Indian who shot Baker. He recovered 
his powder-horn and presented it to Baker's son, who in 
1795 joined General Wayne's army against the Indians of 
the Ohio Valley. The historic powder-horn is still preserved 
among the Revolutionary relics in Memorial Hall at Old 
Deerfield, Mass. 

After Baker's death, Ethan Allen and John Brown were 
sent with scouting parties to determine the Canadians' 
attitude toward the Americans' cause. This proved unfor- 
tunate for Allen, as there appears to have existed a military 
jealousy between the Berkshire and Bennington Boys' 
militia at the time. The closing story is this : 

Colonel Allen met Major Brown between Longueuil and 
La Prairie, and they agreed to attempt the capture of Mon- 
treal. Brown and his two hundred men were to cross the 
St. Lawrence above Montreal on the night of September 
24th; and Allen and his one hundred and ten men were to 
cross the river below the city. At a certain signal from 
Brown, they were to rush against the city from opposite 
sides and seize the guards. Allen waited for Brown's signal, 
but either through cowardice or jealousy, Brown never 



3o8 The Hoosac Valley 

crossed over the river. The position and numbers of Allen's 
party were reported to General Carleton. Allen, deserted 
in the heat of battle by his Canadians, was, therefore, forced 
to surrender, September 25, 1775. 

In Allen's Narrative of Captivity in England's jails, written 
in 1778, he says that General Prescott ordered thirteen 
of the Canadian prisoners captured with him thrust through 
the breast with bayonets. He stepped between them and 
the executioner and told General Prescott "to thrust 
his bayonet into his breast, for he was the sole cause of the 
Canadians taking up arms." He continues: "The guards in 
the meantime, rolling their eyeballs from the General to me, 
as though impatiently waiting his dread commands to 
sheathe their bayonets in my breast. I could, however, 
plainly discern that they were in suspense and quandar\' 
about the matter. This gave me additional hopes of suc- 
ceeding ; for my design was not to die, but to save the Cana- 
dians by a fi?iesse." 

The British officers held a bitter hatred for Ethan Allen 
and his Green Mountain captains. Lieut. -Governor Colden 
sent a doleful account of the capture of Fort Ticonderoga to 
Lord Dartmouth, and consoled him by avowing that: "The 
loyal loving subjects of the King in New York were not con- 
cerned in the Revolution. The only people of the Province, 
who had any hand in the expedition, were the lawless people 
whom your Lordship has heard much of, under the name of 
the 'Bennington Mob.'" 

As their ring-leader and as the "avenger of the oppressed," 
Allen, loaded with irons, was sent to one of England's gloom)- 
prison pens. Gov. Thomas Chittenden later recorded that : 
" In all places he remained Ethan Allen and no one else." 



CHAPTER XVI 

THE COUNCILS OF SAFETY 

I775-I778 

Their measures are executed zvith a secrecy and dispatch that are not to he 
equalled. — -General Burgoyne's Letter to Lord Germaine. 

Grand Committee — Warner's Walloomsac Boys — Albany Council of Safety — 
Knickerbacker's Dutch Hoosac Boys — Simonds's English Hoosac Boys — 
Military Correspondence — -Battle of White Plains — Vermont's Decla- 
ration of Independence — The Americans' Evacuation of Ticonderoga — - 
Battle of Hubbardton — Stark's Bennington Encampment — Berkshire 
and Bennington Volunteers — Baurn's British Army — Burgoyne's Orders 
to Colonel Baum. 

THE united Councils of Safety of the Berkshire, Benning- 
ton, Rensselaer, and Washington militia, aided by the 
New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Rhode Island Commit- 
tees of War, played an important part in winning the vic- 
tories of the Revolution. 

The first fifteen meetings of the Grand Committee of the 
Green Mountain Boys, between October 25, 1 764 and the cap- 
ture of Fort Ticonderoga, May 10, 1775, were not recorded. 
Eight of their Councils of Safety during the succeeding 
seventeen months, however, met to declare Vermont's 
Independence, frame its constitution, and organize its militia. 
Several of the Councils of Safety were held at Stephen Fay's 
Catamount Tavern at Bennington Centre. On the mantel 
in the council chamber was rudely carved "Council Room," 
above which appears a copy of the historic Vermont Gazette, 
bearing the motto of the Green Mountain Boys : 

Pliant as reeds where streams of freedom glide, 
Firm as the hills to stem oppression's tide. 

309 



310 



The Hoosac Valley 



After the capture of Col. Ethan Allen by the British on 
September 25, 1775, his youngest brother, Ira Allen, aided 
by Dr. Jonas Fay and Thomas Chittenden, assumed com- 




The Catamomit Tavern, first known as the Green Mountain Inn of the Green 
Mountain Boys. Built by Landlord Stephen Fay in 1766 and burned in 1S71. 
A stuffed catamount'' s skin became the Tavern sign, after which the place became 
known as the Catamount Tavern. The Councils of Safety of the Green Moun- 
tain Boys were held at the Catamount Tavern during the Revolution until Ver- 
mont's admittance to the Federal Union in 17 91. 

mand of military affairs on the Green Mountain frontier. 
Fay's Records^ of Vermont's Councils of Safety contains 

■ The late Henry B. Dawson, of Morrisania, editor of the New York Historical 
Magazine, obtained a loan of Fay's Records about i860 from Mr. E. B. Safford 
of West Rupert, Vt. He returned the ledger cover minus the Records, and 
sold them to the Library of Congress in 1880. Albert S. Batcheder of New 
Hampshire unearthed the valuable documents recently, and the late Senatt»r 
Redfield Proctor of Vermont photolithographed Fay's Records. Copies arei 
now on file in all the County Clerk Offices of Vermont and in many public 
Ubraries. Fay's original Records are now restored to the Secretary's Office at 
Montpelier, Vt. 

George Grenville Benedict, "Report on Recovery of Fay Records," 
Proc. Vt. Hist. Soc, pp. 49-55, 1903, 1904. 



The Councils of Safety 



311 



forty folio pages, relating to seventeen meetings between 
July 26, 1775 and December 24, 1777. 




Council Chamber of the Green Mountain Boys iti Catamount Tavern. 

Around the historic Fireplace were held many Councils of 

Safety before the Battle of Bennington. 

The Albany Committee of Safety, after the capture of 
Fort Ticonderoga, organized the 14th Regiment of New- 
York under General Ten Broeck, Johannes Knickerbacker, 
2d, was commissioned colonel of the Eastern Division of the 
regiment in Dutch Hoosac. His officers and soldiers resided 
in Old Schaghticoke and Cambridge military districts and 



312 



The Hoosac Valley 



were recorded by Matthew Vischer, Clerk of Albany County. 
The field-officers' of his regiment's eight companies were 
as follows: 



Colonel 
Lieut. -Col. 
1st Maj. 
2d Maj. 
Adjunct 
Quarteiinaster 


Johannes Knickerbacker, 2d 
Daniel Bratt 
Derrick Van Vechten 
John Van Rensselaer 
Charles Toll 
Ignace Kipp 


First Company: 




Captain 
1st Lieut. 
2d Lieut. 
Ensign 


Hendrick Vanderhoof 

Samuel Ketchum | 

Nathaniel Ford 

Jacob Hallenbeck 


Second Company: 




Captain 
1st Lieut. 
2d Lieut. 
Ensign 


Walter Groesbeck 
Wynant Van Denburgh 
Peter Davenport 
Jacob Yates 


Third Company: 




Captain 
1st Lieut, 
2d Lieut. 
Ensign 


John J. Bleecker 
John Snyder 
Matthew D. Garmo 
Stephen Thorne 


Fourth Company: 




Captain 
1st Lieut. 
2d Lieut. 
Ensign 


Lewis Van Woerdt 
John Schouten 
Joseph Boyce 
John Morrel 



' Documentary History, New York. 



The Councils of Safety 



313 



Fifth Company: 
Captain 
ist Lieut. 
2d Lieut. 
Ensign 

Sixth Company: 
Captain 
1st Lieut. 
2d Lieut. 
Ensign 

Seventh Company: 

Captain 

1st Lieut. 

2d Lieut. 

Ensign 

Minute Men Company: 

Captain 
1st Lieut. 
2d Lieut. 
Ensign 



Fenner Palmer 
John Johnson 
James Williamson 
Jonathan Davis 

Daniel B. Bratt 
Michael Champman 
Isaac Lansing 
Francis Hogel 

John (?) Van Rensselaer 
Michael R^^an 
Name unknown 
Peter Hartwell 

John J. Bleecker 
William Thorne 
Thomas Hicks 
Jonathan Rowland 



Col. Johannes Knickerbacker, 2d, in 1776 sent out orders 
to his several companies to remain in readiness for action. 
The original copy of the order to Capt. John Snyder's 
Tomhannac Company of Pittstown is found in the upper 
front hall of Knickerbacker Mansion, dated as follows : 

Com. the Publick Service 
Captain. John Snyder or Next 
Commanding Officer 
At Tomhenich. 

SCHACTOKOOK, May 30th, 1776. 
Dear Sir: 

By order of general Ten Broock it is now become my 
duty, as We do not know now how soon the Country 



314 The Hoosac Valley- 

may call upon us for our Military service, To earnestly 
recommend it unto you to use your utmost endeavour with 
the Company under Your Command as well as officers and 
privates that they shall Pay due obedience & strictly observe 
the Rules and orders for Regulating the militia of the Colony 
of New York Recommended by the Provincial Congress, 
the 22d day of August and the 20th day of December last, 
and inperte reculcBr the 6h and yh Vols. Sections of said 
rules & orders the 5h section of the Appendix to the said 
Rules and Orders. If you or any of your officers have not 
the above printed rules they may be furnished with them 
by Applying unto Matthew Vischer Esq., Secretary of the 
Committee for the City & County of Albany. And also 
Deesire that you furnish me With a List of the Company 
under your command by the 5h day of June next and 
inform me in What manner the Men are equipped as to arms 
ammunition & Accoutrements. 

I am Your Most 

Hum. Serv't 

John Knickerbacker. 

The New York Provincial Congress on July 5, 1776, direc- 
ted that a regiment be reorganized and officered among the 
Green Mountain Boys who had distinguished themselves 
in Col. Seth Warner's Continental Regiment in Canada dur- 
ing the campaign of 1775. Among the officers chosen may 
be named: Col. Seth Warner, Lieut. -Col. Samuel Safiford, 
Lieut. Joseph Safiford, Adj. Benjamin Hopkins, and Ens. 
Jacob SafiEord, all of Bennington. 

At that time Gen. Benedict Arnold controlled the navy 
yard of the Patriots at Skenesboro. He built a flotilla of 
boats, manned with fifty-five guns and seventy swivels, 
requiring three hundred and ninety-five men. General 
Carleton controlled the English navy yard at St. Johns and 
built a fleet of boats. In order to expedite work at the 



The Councils of Safety 315 

Patriots' navy yard, General Gates ordered Captain Eddy's 
Rhode Island Company of thirty-nine ship-carpenters to 
advance from Providence to Skenesboro. On their march, 
they were exposed to smallpox, and the Council of Safety 
of Williamstown quarantined the men in the John Smedley 
mill-house until Dr. William Page vaccinated them. At that 
time inoculation for smallpox was considered a "diabolical 
practice of quacks." Dr. Page on August 17, 1776, addressed 
a letter' to General Gates, stating that Eddy's company 
might safely march for Skenesboro in eight days. Brig.-Gen. 
David Waterbury, Jr., however, had already formally dis- 
charged them on August 12th, and they were not allowed to 
march on to Skenesboro. Most of the men settled in Hoosac 
Valley later. 

The military correspondence of Maj.-Gen. Philip Schuyler 
and Gen. Horatio Gates, between Col. Benjamin Simonds 
and the Berkshire Committee of Safety during 1775, is of 
interest to Hoosactonians. These letters reveal the prompt 
response of the Berkshire and Bennington militia to both 
Schuyler's and Gates's orders : 

Williamstown, September, 12, 1776. 
Sir: 

Agreeable to an express from his Honour, Major- 
General Schuyler, I have caused the Militia under my com- 
mand to be on their march to Tyonderoga. I thought 
proper to send this by express, so that in case the men 
should not be wanted, they may have early orders for their 
return, that so expenses of their march further than neces- 
sary may be prevented. 

I am your Honour's Most obedient servant, 

Ben'j Simonds 

Colonel. 
To General Gates. 

'Perry, Williamstown and Williams College, p. loi. 



3i6 The Hoosac Valley 

Tyonderoga, September 15, 1776. 
Sir: 

I this moment received your letter, dated Williams- 
town, 12th instant. As I did not send the orders for your 
march to camp, I could not take measures more early to stop 
yotu" proceeding. The last account from General Arnold 
convinces me that there is no immediate necessity for the 
Militia coming forward at this time. A copy of his last 
letter to me I send you enclosed. The alarm was occasioned 
by some firing from our enemy on the shores opposite Isle 
Aux Tetes: and I believe a great number of small arms and 
cannon fired that and the succeeding days by brigades of 
the enemy at exercise at their post below, all which deceived 
the Commanding Officer at Crown Point. 

A good road will be finished by this day sennight, from 
Rutland through Castleton to the east fort of Mount Inde- 
pendence, and an excellent bridge over Otter Creek at Rut- 
land will be finished in three days. For the future, any 
body of men intended for our succor, should march that way. 

The United States are, in general, obliged to you for your 
alertness to succor their army, and particular. Sir, 

Yours &C. &C. 
Ho. Gates. 

To Colonel Benjamin Simonds. 

A month later Ma j.- General Schuyler sent a rallying mes- 
sage from his Schuylerville Alansion addressed to the Com- 
mittee of Safety, Berkshire County, Mass., dated: 

Saratoga, October, 16, 1776. 

Gentlemen : 

Our fleet, which suffered severely in an engagement 
on the 1 2th instant with the enemy, has been still more 
severely handled in a subsequent one, insomuch that the 
enemy are left masters of the lake, and are now coming 
on to attack our army at Ticonderoga. In this situation 



The Councils of Safety 317 

of affairs it is of utmost importance that the mihtia of your 
State should immediately march to sustain the army ; and 
such as can march expeditiously, come by way of Albany, 
should do so, and the others take the route to Skenesborough. 
Each man should come provided with as much provision 
and ammunition as possible. The commanding officer 
should send me information of his march from time to time. 
I shall be either at Fort George or Skenesborough, but as 
I cannot determine which, it will be proper to send expresses 
to both places, and to forward copies of this to Governor 
Trumbull, and to every Committee in your State in a situ- 
ation of affording assistance, and also to the neighbouring 
counties in the State of Connecticut. I must repeat, gentle- 
men, that it is of the utmost importance that I should be 
duly furnished with an account of the movements and num- 
bers of the Militia. 
From, gentlemen, your most obedient, humble servant, 

Ph. Schuyler. 
To the Committee of the County of Berkshire. 

A copy of General Schuyler's order was also sent with the 
following message to Hampshire, formerly a part of Berkshire 
County, by the Berkshire Committee: 

Stockb RIDGE, October 19, 1776. 
Gentlemen : 

The Militia of this County are rallied and on their 
march, and we think it of the utmost importance that 
you comply with the General's request immediately. 

Erastus Sergeant, 
Samuel Brown, Jun., 
Asa Bennett. 

Committee of Stockbridge. 

To the Committee of Hampshire County. 

General Schuyler sent a rallying message to Col. Moses 
Robinson, son of the late Capt. Samuel Robinson, Sr., then 



3i8 The Hoosac Valley 

in command of the Bennington Boys' militia. Nearly every 
man able to bear arms in the Walloomsac Valley volunteered, 
so that there were not enough left to operate the grist-mills 
or ship provincial stores to supply the army. The Ameri- 
cans, however, were victorious at that time, and the Benning- 
ton and Berkshire companies were soon discharged and 
received the official thanks of General Gates. 

During the campaign of 1775, Capt. Isaac Wyman, last 
commander of Fort Massachusetts, who located at Keene, 
N. H., in 1 761, was appointed lieutenant-colonel in Col. 
John Stark's New Hampshire militia; and during the cam- 
paign of 1776 he was commissioned colonel of a New Hamp- 
shire regiment by the Committee of Safety and ordered to 
march to Fort Ticonderoga on July 11, 1776. His commis- 
sion is of local interest to Hoosactonians to-day, since several 
of his captains named were original settlers of English 
Hoosac towns: 

July II, 1776. 
Sir: 

I send you by bearer, your commission as Colonel 

of a Regiment of our Militia in the Service; also, thirty 
pounds, as two months' advance wages. As the troops will 
be along in a few days, it is expected that you will go along 
with them to Crown Point and join the army there. The 
Captains: Drew, Chandler, Shephard, Dearborn, Blanchard, 
Harper, Parker, and Weatherbee, with their companies, 
are to make your regiment. As it is of great consequence 
that the men are forwarded with speed, therefore expect 
you will do what is in your power that they make no delay 
at No. 4. You will also receive thirty-two pounds, advance 
wages for your Surgeon, Adjutant, and Quartermaster, with 
this and blank commissions for those officers to be appointed 
by you. Imploring the Divine assistance of your endeavors 
to serve your Country, and that you may return in safety, 
with laurels of victory, is the sincere desire of him who, in 



The Councils of Safety 319 

behalf of the Committee, subscribes himself your very 

humble servant. 

Name unknown. 

To Colonel Wyman. 

On September i, 1776, it is recorded that a "General 
Court Martial" was announced to sit at ten o'clock the 
following morning at "the President's tent, upon Mount 
Independence, for the trial of Colonel Wyman and such pris- 
oners as shall be brought before the Court." Nothing more 
is heard of Colonel Wyman 's military career during the 
Revolution after that date. Whether the rallying call for 
volunteers was sent to Berkshire, Bennington, Connecticut, 
or New Hampshire Committees, general obedience and 
speed were observed. On June 24, 1776, the Williamstown 
Boys voted that they would "solemnly engage their lives 
and fortunes" to support the Provincial Congress in its 
adopted measures for the formal subsequent Declaration of 
Independence, to be executed July 4, 1 776. The Bennington 
Boys, also, held their first and second General Councils of 
Safety at Dorset on July 24th and September 25, 1776, at 
which Dr. Jonas Fay declared that New Hampshire Grants, 
comprising the Green Mountain territory, "ought to be and 
is forever hereafter to be considered a free and independent 
jurisdiction and State." 

Col. Benjamin Simonds's regiment of Berkshire Boys, 
organized in 1775, was called out to meet the British in the 
fatal Battle of White Plains, on October 28, 1776. Col. Mark 
Hopkins, a member of the Stockbridge Council of Safety, 
and grandfather of the late President Mark Hopkins of 
Williams College, died the day before the battle, in which he 
had planned to participate. Between December 16, 1776, 
and March 29, 1777, Colonel Simonds and three hundred 
and eight of his Berkshire Boys took command of Fort 
Ticonderoga. The names of his field-officers, many of whom 



320 



The Hoosac Valley- 



were proprietors of the English Hoosac towns, are of interest 
to Hoosactonians. They are: 



Colonel 
Major 
Adjutant 
Surgeon 
Assist. Surgeon 
Surgeon's Mate 
Aide to Colonel 

First Company: 
Captain 

Second Company: 
Captain 

Third Company: 
Captain 



Fourth Company: 
Captain 



Fifth Company: 
Captain 



Benjamin Simonds 
Caleb Hyde 
Daniel Horsford 
Erastus Sergeant 
William Towner 
Eldad Lewis 
Joseph Simonds 



Erastus Sergeant 
Forty-three men 



Amos Rathburn 
Fifty-eight men 



William Douglass 
Seventy-seven men 
from Hancock, Lanes- 
boro, and Williamstown 



Ephraim Fitch 
Fifty-seven men 
from Williamstown 
and adjoining towns. 



George King 
Fifty-seven men 
from Cheshire, 
Williamstown, and 
other towns. 



Williamstown 

Lenox 

Williamstown 

Stockbridge 

Williamstown 

Lenox 

Williamstown 



Stockbridge 



Unknown 



Hancock 



Unknown 



Unknown 



The Councils of Safety 321 

Sixth Company: 

Captain William Watkins Unknown 

Forty-four men 
from English Hoosac 
towns. 

Seventh Company: 

Captain David Wheeler Unknown 

Forty-five men 
from Williamstown 
and adjoining towns. 

During the third and fourth meetings of the General 
Council of Safety of the Green Mountain Boys, held at 
Westminster, October, 30, 1776 and January 15, 1777, Ira 
Allen presented Dr. Jonas Fay's Declaration of Vermont's 
Independence. The Continental Congress at Philadelphia, 
however, later refused to accept the Green Mountain settlers' 
Declaration of Rights, although Ira Allen and Dr. Thomas 
Young published papers supporting their contentions. 
After the thirteen United Colonies declared their Indepen- 
dence of the British Crown, all arbitrary acts of the 
New York Royal Colony also became null in the Green 
Mountain Republic. The settlers, therefore, considered 
themselves "without law or government, truly in a state 
of nature." They described and bounded the territory and 
pubHshed their State's Declaration of Independence' as 
■the fourteenth in the Federal Union, under the name of 
"New Cormecticut," in the Connecticut Courant, March 17, 

, ^777- 
K The meeting of the General Council of Safety, held at 

' Windsor, July 2, 1777, met to frame their State Constitution. 
Dr. Thomas Young of Philadelphia, in a letter dated in April, 
1777, had advised "the people of Vermont to form forthwith 

' Dr. Jonas Fay, Records of Vermont Councils of Safety. 



322 The Hoosac Valley 

a State Government," modelled after Pennsylvania's Con- 
stitution. This appears to have been the first time the 
name Vermont was appHed to the territory. In October 
1763, the Rev. Hugh Peters' had, however, christened the 
Green Mountain region Verd-mont, from the French Verd 
(green) and motit (mount). The "d" was dropped later 
and the present spelHng, Vermont, adopted. Dr. Thomas 
Young died before the completion of Vermont's Declaration 
of Rights, although they were finished by Ira Allen, who 
collected fees for copying the model State Papers. 

At the first session of the Windsor Constitutional Council 
of Safety, July 2, 1777, Ira Allen was appointed commander 
of frontier defences. Three days later news of the Evacua- 
tion of Fort Ticonderoga by the Patriots on July 5th, and 
the Battle of Hubbardton on the 6th, reached the Windsor 
Council. The Vermont Legislature had not yet elected its 
officers and the State was thus without a dollar in its 
treasury. Ira Allen and Thomas Chittenden, however, sent 
express messengers to New Hampshire, Massachusetts, 
and Connecticut Committees of Safety, urging militia for the 
defence of the Hoosac-Walloomsac frontier. John Langdon, 
of the New Hampshire Legislature, personally donated 
$3000 in money and pledged $3000 more in silver plate and 
seventy hogsheads of tobago rum, to be sold at auction to 
swell the military fund. Brig.-Gen. John Stark of London- 
derry, N. H., signed an agreement with the Legislature, and 
the veterans who fought with him in the Battle of Bunker 
Hill, rallied at Fort No. 4, now the site of Charleston on the 
Connecticut. 

Later the Bennington Council of Safety adjourned in de- 
spair over the problem of raising funds to equip a regiment. 
The youthful secretary, Ira Allen, was appointed "to dis- 

'Rev. Samuel Peters, Life of Rev. Hugh Peters, 1807; Thompson's Vermont 
Hist., Pt. I., p. 4; Pt. II., p. 108, 1842. 



,i 



The Councils of Safety 323 

cover ways and means" and to report at sunrise. After a 
sleepless night he reported that ' ' the property of all persons 
(Tories) who had or should join the common enemy (British) 
should be sequestered and sold at public auction to furnish 
the means of defence." On July 28th following, commis- 
sioners were appointed, who sold all Tory property and arms 
at auction. Fifteen days later Col. Samuel Herrick's Regi- 
ment of Vermont Rangers was organized, including Capt. 
Samuel Robinson's' East Bennington Company, Capt. 
Elijah Dewey's^ West Bennington Company, and a portion 
of Col. Nathaniel Brush's Regiment of Vermont Volunteers, 
many of whom resided in Pownal and Stamford. 

General Stark's letter, dated at Fort No. 4 on the Con- 
necticut, July 29, 1777, informed the Bennington Council 
of Safety that the British had left Castleton with intention to 
march to the upper Walloomsac and seize Fort Bennington's 
Provincial storehouse. He was delayed at Fort No. 4, 
owing to scarcity of bullets. Only one pair of bullet-moulds 
were at hand to turn out balls, and nine of the eleven barrels 
of powder were condemned. Ira Allen and Thomas Chit- 
tenden, however, urged Stark's men forward by sending food 
and rum to aid them on their march over the mountains 
to Manchester, where they arrived on August 8th. General 
Lincoln met General Stark with a message from Major- 
General Schuyler to march down to the east bank of the 
Hudson. Stark refused and showed his agreement made 
with the New Hampshire Legislature to hang on the New 
England border and strike as opportunity offered. General 
Schuyler wholly forgot to give orders to defend the Hoosac- 
Walloomsac frontier. 

General Stark and his army, accompanied by Col. Seth 
Warner, on August 9th left Manchester and encamped late 
that evening on the meadow surrounding Colonel Herrick's 

• See Note 20, at end of volume. ' See Note 21, at end of volume. 



324 The Hoosac Valley- 

Tavern, two miles west of the Old First Church of Bennington 
Centre, now the site of the Otis Warren residence. 

Burgoyne's army of 7000 troops consisted of over 4000 
German hirelings, including Brunswickers, Dragoons, Hes- 
sians, and Chasseurs, and 3000 Britishers. Only 2800 
of the German troops survived. For the death or non- return 
of each of the German soldiers England was forced to pay the 
petty sovereign £14 — twice as much as she paid for those 
returned. Burgoyne's campaign of 1777 was mapped out 
for him by King George II. and his ministers. He left 
Quebec in May and was ordered to make a juncture with 
General Howe at Albany. 

On the march south from Canada the British army swelled 
to nearly 10,000 men, including Canadians, Indians, and 
Tories. On June ist, Burgoyne broke up his River Boquet 
Camp and marched for Fort Ticonderoga. The settlers 
fled in terror ahead of his Indian scouts. They left their 
tables as they rose from breakfast and set a torch to their 
dwellings. The British gained the Old Military Road and 
soon arrived at Fort Ticonderoga. The battery of the 
Patriots on Mount Independence in Orwell was connected 
with the main fortress on the west shore by a floating bridge. 
Both forts were within cannon shot of Sugar Loaf Mountain, 
known as Mount Defiance, where the British hauled for- 
midable batteries during the night of July 5th. Before 
sunrise the Patriots evacuated Fort Ticonderoga and crossed 
on the bridge to Mount Independence. They were ad- 
vancing toward Hubbardton, Vt., when the British overtook 
General St. Clare's rear-guard, composed of Warner's, 
Francis's, and Hale's nine hundred Continentals. The 
Battle of Hubbardton lasted three hours, until the British 
were reinforced by the Hessians, who marched forward 
singing their Battle Hymn of Winfield's Fight, louder than 
the sound of musketry. Colonel Francis was slain and Col- 






The Councils of Safety 325 

onel Warner ordered his men to look out for themselves and 
meet him at Manchester. The loss of both the Americans 
and the Britishers was heavy; only about one hundred and 
fifty of Warner's Continentals reached Manchester safely. 

General Burgoyne made his headquarters at Maj. Philip 
Skene's Whitehall Manor, where he remained until July 15th, 
when his army began to march down the Hudson to meet 
General Howe at Albany. Howe later took possession of 
New Jersey, New York, and Long Island forts, which led 
Gen. George Washington, stationed on lower Hudson, to 
exclaim that "as matters were going, Burgoyne would have 
little difficulty in reaching Albany." After the Evacuation 
of Fort Ticonderoga and the Battle of Hubbardton, however, 
General Schuyler rallied his scattered troops at Fort George. 
He removed all the cannon and stores, tore up the corduroy 
roads, and blocked the enemies' march between Skene's 
Whitehall Manor and Fort Edward, by felling trees across 
the muddy pass. The British and Germans were thus 
unable to march more than a mile a day for the following 
twenty-two days and arrived at Fort Edward on the upper 
Hudson, July 28th. 

Those three weeks gave the Continental Councils of 
Safety time to rally large regiments and station them 
between Bemis Heights at Stillwater and Half-Moon at 
Waterford on the Hudson. Both the Hoosac and Walloom- 
sac passes were guarded by the redoubtable Stark, who was 
"Stark sure" of Burgoyne's intention to seize the Provin- 
cial stores at Bennington and Williamstown, After arriving 
at Fort Edward on July 28th, General Burgoyne held a 
council of war with his officers, and the Tory Major, Philip 
Skene, advised him of the Americans' stores of com, wheat, 
horses, cattle, and wheel carriages at Fort Bennington. He 
needed horses and wagons to move provisions and artillery 
from Lake George to Albany, and 1300 horses to mount 



326 The Hoosac Valley 

General Riedesel's Dragoons. Burgoyne, therefore, ordered 
Col. Frederick Baum to head an expedition to seize Benning- 
ton's storehouse. He broke up his Fort Edward Camp and 
gave out that he was to march to Boston, although his secret 
plan was to make a juncture with General Howe, Colonel 
St. Leger, and Colonel Baum at Albany, and to eat his 
Christmas plum-pudding either there or in New York City. 
However, the massacre of Jane McCrea by the Huron 
Chief, Wyandotte Panther, took place on July 27th, the 
day before Burgoyne broke up his Fort Edward Camp. 
Owing to her youth and the romance of her approaching 
marriage to David Jones, an officer in Peters's regiment of 
Loyalists, the massacre made a particularly deep impression. 
The news spread like magic and roused every American in 
the Colonies. A mighty hatred burned in the breasts of 
Whig and Tory alike. The wavering Loyalists now seized 
their muskets and volunteered for the Patriot Cause against 
the British Crown that stooped to enlist savages in their 
cause. Jane McCrea was conducted by two Indians to meet 
her lover at his brother's home near General Eraser's Camp, 
north of the site of Sandy Hill. A keg of rum was promised 
to her escorts for her safe arrival. The Indians quarrelled 
over the division of the rum, a mile south of her destination, 
and the Huron chieftain, in order to prevent his companion 
from receiving the rum, seized Jane McCrea's golden hair 
and scalped her beneath a pine tree still standing at Sandy 
Hill. General Burgoyne, however, pardoned Wyandotte 
Panther, and on August 5th, nine days after Jane McCrea's 
massacre, he obtained a pledge from seventeen tribes of the 
Abenakis and Iroquois nations to remain loyal to the British 
Cause. Burgoyne then sent forth a proclamation to the 
colonists in which he said : " I have but to give stretch to the 
Indian forces under my direction, and they amount to thou- 
sands, to overtake the hardened enemies of Great Britain. 



The Councils of Safety 327 

... I trust I shall stand acquitted in the eyes of God and 
man, in executing the vengeance of the Crown against the 
wilful outcasts." 

Burgoyne's British army of disciplined men was excep- 
tionally well supplied with officers and artillery. His 
generals — Philip, Fraser, Riedesel, Nesbit, Gordon, and 
Thatcher — were all men of skill and judgment. 

Stark's American army included eighteen hundred 
undisciplined men, including over five hundred Berkshire 
volunteers, fresh from their harvest fields, armed with 
scythes, axes, hay-forks, and old flint-locks. They arrived 
at the North Farm Camp in Bennington on the rainy day of 
August 15th. Several of the Bennington County boys were 
bare-footed. On August i6th, during the raging battle, 
' Captain Comstock led his Sunderland company to the 
battle-field without shoes. While in the act of trying on a 
dead Hessian's shoes, he was mortally wounded, after which 
I the command of his company fell to Lieut. Eli Brownson, 
a brother-in-law of Col. Ethan Allen. 

There was not a man left at Williamstown in Berkshire 

I County except a cripple unable to bear arms. Capt. Samuel 

' Clark's South Williamstown company contained sixty-five 

I men; and Capt Nehemiah Smedley's North Williamstown 

: company contained ninety men. The military line separat- 

i ing the two districts ran east and west over the summit of 

Stone Hill. Capt. William Douglass's Hancock company con- 

t tained forty-six men, and Captain Smith's company from the 

same neighborhood numbered thirty-one men, who belonged 

to Colonel Simonds's Berkshire Boys Regiment. Capt. 

Amariah Babbitt's New Ashford company included a large 

number of patriotic men, although the hilly town, famous 

for blackberry-briars, is nearly depopulated to-day. Capt. 

Daniel Brown's Lanesboro company contained forty-six men, 

and they carried to the field sixty pounds of powder, five 



328 



The Hoosac Valley 



hundred and eighty pounds of lead, and two hundred and 
forty flints. 

Lieut. William Ford of Brown's Pittsfield regiment headed 




Catamount Monument, marking site of the Catamount Tavern on the Parade at 

Bennington Centre, Vermont. The Bronze Catamount of the Benningtonians 

still grins his teeth westward toward the Yorkers as in iy66 and 177 1. 

twenty-two men, including the famous "Fighting Parson," 
Thomas Allen, a cousin of Ethan Allen and first minister of 
Pittsfield, and several of his parishioners. Capt. Aaron 
Rowley led the Richmond company, containing twenty-six 
men, including David Rossiter of Brown's regiment. Capt. 



11 



The Councils of Safety 329 

Enoch Noble and Lieutenant Warner of Ashley's regiment 
also led two companies from Stockbridge, and Captain Solo- 
mon headed a company of Stockbridge Indians. A Lenox 
company included the sharpshooters Linus Parker, Sepp Ives, 
Isaac Cummings, and others. Captain Low's Cheshire com- 
pany contained forty-four men, and Capt. Joab Stafford's 
company of Independents from Stafford Hill, a part of the 
town of Cheshire, contained forty-one men, including several 
Quakers from Windsor, Lanesboro, Adams, and North 
Adams. They took forty pounds of powder, one hundred 
and twenty pounds of lead, and seventy-two flints. Capt. 
Enos Parker led the Adams company, containing forty-one 
men. 

Lead seemed to be one of the most needed articles among 
the New England troopers. On August 15th, mounted 
messengers were sent through Berkshire and Bennington 
counties collecting lead. Dr. Fay's Records of the Council 
of Safety contains the following message : 

State of Vermont, 
Bennington in Council of Safety, 
August 15, 1777. 
Sir: 

You are hereby desired to forward to this place, by 
express, all the lead you can possibly collect in your vicinity; 
as it is expected, every minute, an action will commence 
between our troops and the enemies, within four or five 
miles of this place, and the lead will be positively wanted. 

By Order of the Council, 

Paul Spooner, 

D. Sec'y. 
The Chairman of the Committee of Safety of Williamstown. 

Col. Benjamin Simonds sent another special order for lead 
to his wife at River Bend Tavern in Williamstown, as follows: 



330 The Hoosac Valley 

Madam: Please to send by bearer, Jedidiah Reed, 6 or 
7 pounds of lead, by Col. Simonds's order. 

By Order of Council, 

Paul Spooner, 

D. Sec'y. 
Mrs. SiMONDS. 

Lieut.-Col. Frederick Baum's expedition was equipped 
with Burgoyne's finest men, including General Riedesel's 
Dragoons, General Eraser's brigadeof marksmen, and Peters's 
regiment of Loyalists, led under the Tory, Col. Francis J. Van 
Pfister of White House Manor of Dutch Hoosac. With 
these were also allied a regiment of Canadian Rangers, 
headed by one hundred and fifty Indians and two cannon 
and artillerists. Lieut. -Colonel Breyman and a strong body 
of German regulars, together with two large calibre cannon, 
were posted at the junction of the Batten Kill in Old Sara- 
toga, twenty-two miles northwest of St. Croix Mills, as 
Baum's reinforcements. 

Fifty Chasseurs joined Baum's army at eleven o'clock 
on the evening of the i ith of August, and at five o'clock the 
following morning Baum began his march to Fort Benning- 
ton up the Old Cambridge Road. He had not advanced 
a mile, however, when a message from Burgoyne ordered 
him to post his troops and await further orders. Burgoyne 
called a council of war and early on the morning of August 
1 2th, gave Colonel Baum the following verbal orders: 

"Mount your Dragoons, send me thirteen hundred horses; 
seize Bennington, cross the mountains to Rockingham and 
Brattleboro; try the affections of the country; meet me, a 
fortnight hence, in Albany." 



CHAPTER XVII 

the victory of bennington 
August i6, 1777 

Had each man been an Alexander or Charles of Sweden, he could not have 
behaved more gallantly. . . . The storming of the redoubts was the hottest I ever 
saiD in my life: It represented one continued clap of thunder. — General Stark's 
Despatch to General Gates. 

Stark's Council of War — Colonel Greggs's Opening Skirmish — American and 
British Encampments — Baums's and Van Pfister's Redoubts — Eve before 
the Battle of Bennington — Patriots' Plan of Attack — Stark's Address 
to his Army — Storming of the British Redoubts — Surrender of Baum 
and Van Pfister — Colonel Breyman's Reinforcements — Colonel Warner's 
Continental Reinforcements — Hessian and Tory Prisoners — Patriots' 
Trophies of War — ^Centennial of the Victory of Bennington and Battle 
Monument, 1877. 

THE early dawn of Wednesday, August 13, 1777, revealed 
a threatening storm cloud lowering over the brow of 
Mount St. Anthony, south of General Stark's Bennington 
Centre encampment. The scouts, Isaac Clark and Eleazar 
Eggerton, upon that eventful morning reported a party of 
Burgoyne's Tories and Indians to be marching up the Old 
Cambridge Road, toward St. Croix Mills, on the lower 
Walloomsac. 

General Stark called a council of war with Warner, Herrick, 
:Simonds, ' Hobart,^ Stickney, and Nichols at the "Cata- 
mount Tavern." Lieut. -Colonel Greggs with two hundred 
sharpshooters later marched down the Walloomsac to head 
off the enemy at St. Croix, ten miles below Fort Bennington 

• See illustration, Chapter VIII. ^ Incorrectly reported Hubbard. 

331 



332 The Hoosac Valley 

i 
storehouse. Express messengers were sent north and south! 

on their swiftest steeds with marching orders for Warner's 

Continental Regiment at Manchester and for Simonds's and 

Patterson's Berkshire Regiments at WilHamstown and 

Pittsfield. 

Stark broke up his Bennington Centre encampment, east 
of Herrick Tavern, before sunrise and marched four miles 
down the Walloomsac to the North Farm, two miles south 
of the present State Line Tavern. On the march he is said 
to have breakfasted at Sergt. Daniel Harmon's Inn, still 
standing, two miles west of the Battle Monument, and 
known as the "Old Yellow House." 

Meanwhile, about four o'clock, Colonel Baum arrived at 
Lick's Tavern, near the junction of the Owl Kill with the 
Hoosac, now the site of Johnson ville, N. Y., and his army 
encamped for the night near Daniel Van Rensselaer's millsj 
A scouting party of thirty Tories and fifty Indians were sent 
in advance, however, to take possession of Van Schaick's mills 
at St. Croix. Isaac Bull, the miller at Van Rensselaer's mills, 
was commanded to grind wheat all night for Baum's army. 
In Old Cambridge, Robert Lake with a team and herd of cat- 
tle was captured by Baum, while James Rogers, from the 
junction of the Batten Kill, and Col. John Williams's family 
from White Creek made their escape ahead of his army. 
Rogers arrived at Sodom hamlet, near Stark's encampment, j 
with his ox-team, the rainy night before the Battle of Ben- 
nington, and Mrs. Williams journeyed on to WilHamstown, 
where she sold Dr. William Porter her husband's case of 
amputating instruments. 

Baum's scouting party arrived at Van Schaick's mill^ 
and forced the enemies' guard to abandon the place. At 
eight o'clock the following morning, August 14th, Baum's 
main army arrived and found several Falls Quequick skir- 
mishers, headed by Joel Abbott and his father, in the act of 




Major-General John Stark, the Hero of Bennington, August 
i6, 1777. General Stark died in 1822 at the age of 94 years. 

{A copy of the Original Painting by Tenney, owned by the City of Manchester, 
New Hampshire.) 



333 



334 



The Hoosac Valley 



breaking down the St, Croix Bridge over Little White Creek. 
In a letter addressed to General Burgoyne, Colonel Baum 




Van Schaick's Mill at St. Croix near the junction of the Little White with 
the WaUoomsac River, Hoosac, New York. The Battle of Bennington began and 
ended about the St. Croix Bridge, although the British and Tory Redoubts oc< u- 
pied summits near the Vermont State Line. Colonels Baum and Van Pfister 
both expired and were buried on the bank of the WaUoomsac in Shaftsbury, 
Vermont. 

states that he was delayed at St. Croix over an hour. He 

says: 

Sancroick, 14 Aug., 1777, 9 o'clock. 
Sir: 

I have the honor to inform your Excellency that I arri\'cd 
here at eight in the morning. Having had intelligence ofi 
a party of the enemy being in possession of a mill which 
they abandoned, but in their usual way fired from the bushes, 
and took their road to Bennington, a savage was slightly 
wounded; they broke down the bridge, which retarded our 
march above an hour. ' 

They left in the mill 1000 bushels of wheat 20 bbls. of salt 



The Victory of Bennington 



335 



and about 78 bbls. of 
very fine flour, and £1000 
worth of pearl of potash. 
I have ordered 30 pro- 
vincials and an officer to 
guard the provisions, 
and the pass of the bridge. 

By five prisoners taken 
they agree that 1500 to 
1800 men are in Benning- 
ton, but are supposed to 
leave it on our approach. 

I will proceed as far 
to-day as to fall on the 
enemy to-morrow early, 
and make such disposi- 
tion as I think necessary 
from the intelligence I 
receive. 

The people are flocking 
in hourly, but want to 
be armed. The savages 
cannot be controlled — 
they ruin and take every- 
thing they please. 

I am your Excellency's 
most obedient and hum- 
ble servant. 

F. Baum. 

Beg your Excellency to 
pardon the hurry of this 
letter. It is wrote on the 
head of a barrel. 

To General Burgoyne. 

Colonel Greggs's sharp- 
shooters killed several of 




Slab marking site oj tJu: J->rilisIi Breast- 
Works on each side of the Old Cambridge 
Road, near western portal of Mellen's 
Bridge noiu known as Barnet Bridge over 
the Walloomsac, Hoosac, New York. 



336 The Hoosac Valley 

Baum's Indians and retreated about two miles in an orderly, 
confident manner until they arrived at William Mellen's 
log-house. Here Baum's army beheld General Stark's main 
army, drawn up in line of battle. The ground did not appear 
to be adapted for an attack and Baum posted his troops 
for the night. Stark marched his army two miles east and 
encamped for the night on the North Farm in Bennington. 
The meadow is marked now by a granite monument. Stark 
called a council of war, after which it was decided to attack 
the British the following day, Friday, August 15th. Upon 
the morrow, however, rain fell in torrents and Stark sent 
forth skirmishing parties with the object only to m.olest the 
enemy. 

According to Glick, a German officer, "Baum bivouacked 
at the farm of Walmscott (William Mellen or Mullen) by 
the Walloonschoik " (Walloon's Creek), known to-day as 
Walloomsac River, now the site of Elmer Gooding's brick 
mansion. He sent a message to General Burgoyne for 
reinforcements and continued to build redoubts. 

Baum's Height, known to-day as Jewett's Cobble, north 
of Baum's encampment, was chosen for his main redoubts. 
The summit rises over four hundred feet above the bed of 
the Walloomsac and is now marked by a flagstaff. Here 
Baum posted Riedesel's Dragoons and a brigade of Canadian 
Rangers. Ten rods north of Mellen's Bridge over the Wal- 
loomsac, he stationed another party of Riedesel's Dragoons 
with one cannon ; and on the brow of the steep embankment 
above the river, overlooking Battlefield Park of to-day, he 
posted fifty Chasseurs. On both sides of the Old Cam- 
bridge Road, east of Mellen's Bridge, behind light earth- 
works, were stationed Canadian Rangers and German 
Grenadiers. 

The Tory redoubt stood on Van Pfister's Hill, seventy rods 
south of Mellen's Bridge, directly south of Baum's redoubts 



The Victory of Bennington 337 

,on Baum's Height. According to Esquire Nathaniel 

Wallace of Pownal, the Tory earthworks consisted of en- 

Itrenchments with forest staddles set closely together at 

their base, slightly diverging at their top for the discharge 

of arms. A platform of logs and earth was built high 

! enough within to enable the gunners to bring their faces 

up to the apertures of the stockade to take aim, after which 

ieach man stepped down and reloaded his rifle. Col. Francis 

J. Van Pfister of White House Manor of Nepimore, in 

Hoosac, commanded Peter's regiment of Loyalists at the 

Tory works. Here assembled many neighboring Tories 

jfrom Lanesboro and Hancock, Massachusetts. Capt. 

: Samuel Anderson led a Pownal company of Tories, while 

.Colonel Van Pfister rallied a large volunteer company in 

! Dutch Hoosac. 

j Stark's army was eighteen hundred strong, including three 

iNew Hampshire regiments under command of Colonels 

iHobart, Stickney, and Nichols; Col. William Williams's 

I Wilmington company; Col. Samuel Herrick's regiment of 

! Vermont Rangers, composed of Capt. Samuel Robinson's 

jEast Bennington company,^ Capt. Elijah Dewey s West 

I Bennington company,^ with an enrolment of one Aundred 

and fifty men, besides a portion of Col, Nathaniel Brush's 

regiment of Vermont Volunteers, and Colonel Slmonds's 

i Berkshire Regiment, and volunteer companies with an 

enrolment of over five hundred men. 

The "Fighting Parson," Thomas Allen of Pittsfield, 
I arrived at Stark's North Farm encampment about two 
'o'clock on the morning of August i6th. He greeted the 
! General by saying: "We, the people of Berkshire, have fre- 
quently been called upon to fight, but have never been led 
against the enemy. We have now resolved, if you will not 
let us fight, never to turn out again." General Stark 

' See Note 20 at end of volume. ' See Note 21 at end of volume. 



338 The Hoosac Valley 

replied : " If the Lord shall once more give us sunshine, and 
I do not give you fighting enough, I will never ask you to 
come out again." The patriotic parson with his dishevelled 
hair was later considered the most picturesque figure in 
either the American or British encampments. 

The Bennington Council of Safety sat in constant session, 
and early Saturday morning, Sergt. Josiah Dunning of 
Captain Noble's PowTial company, guarding the Provincial 
storehouse at Bennington Centre, was despatched down the 
Walloomsac to locate Colonel Breyman's reinforcements. 
Saturday, August i6, 1777, dawTied very warm, although 
Click, the German officer, recorded that: 

The storm of the preceding day having expended itself, 
not a cloud was left to darken the heavens, while the 
very leaves hung motionless, and the long grass waved not, 
under the influence of perfect calm. Every object around 
appeared, too, to peculiar advantage; for the fields looked 
green and refreshed, the river was swollen and tumultuous, 
and the branches of the forest trees were all loaded with 
dewdrops, which glistened in the sun's early rays like so 
many diamonds. Nor would it be possible to imagine 
any scene more rife with peaceful and even pastoral 
beauty. 

General Stark's plan of surrounding Baum's and \"an 
Pfister's redoubts began long before sunrise, although little 
firing took place until three o'clock in the afternoon, Thej 
British, however, kept up a constant bombardment, wasting 
much ammunition. Warner and Herrick were familiar with 
every hill and ravine of the Walloomsac, and the English his- 
torian, Gordon, considered that their "superior militar> 
skill" was of great service to General Stark. 

The General, after his several regiments were in readiness' 
to march to their assigned positions on the field, mountec. 






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340 The Hoosac Valley 

a rail-fence near his encampment and saluted his "Httle 
army" saying: "There are the Redcoats and they are ours, 
or this night Molly Stark sleeps a widow!" 

Colonel Nichols of Bennington with three hundred New 
Hampshire troops marched northeast, through Shaftsbury, 
Vt., taking a wide circuit from Stark's Camp, and came in 
on the rear left of Baum's redoubt ; Colonel Herrick of Ben- 
nington and his three hundred A^ermont Rangers marched 
northwest, through Hoosac and White Creek, N. Y., taking 
a wide circuit, and came in on Baum's rear right. 

General Stark and Colonel Warner with one hundred 
sharpshooters at two-thirty o'clock charged Baum's front 
on Baum's Height until Herrick's and Nichols's regiments 
arrived in position. Thomas Mellen recorded that Gener;d 
Stark came galloping forward with shoulders bent, and cried 
out to his men, "Those rascals know that I am an officer; 
don't you see they honor me with a big gun as a salute!" 
However, Stark's men continued to march round and round 
the base of Baum's Height to "amuse the Germans," until 
three o'clock. 

Herrick's and Nichols's salute opened battle about Baum's 
and Van Pfister's redoubts simultaneously. 

Silas Walbridge, a member of Capt. John Warner's com- 
pany, posted on front of Herrick's rangers, said that just; 
before arriving at Baum's redoubt, a party of Indians camej 
in sight. Fearing that they were surrounded, they retreated i 
single file between Herrick's and Nichols's regiments, which 
caused a delay in attacking Baum's earthworks until after 
the savages sought the shelter of the woods amid wild war-| 
whoops and jingling of cow-bells. 

The details of the two hours' fight of the Patriots about 
Baum's and Van Pfister's redoubts are sadly wanting in 
our local histor\^ The German officer. Click, recorded that : 
"While the British outworks were swept away with ease. 



The Victory of Bennington 341 

it was not so with Baum's main entrenchment, where his 
faithful veterans were stationed. They were slow to believe 
that they could be vanquished." 

Colonel Baum was momentarily looking for the arrival 
of Breyman's reinforcements, when the solitary tumbril, 
containing all the spare ammunition of the British, exploded 
with great violence. General Stark and his veterans, though 
arrested by the sudden concussion, rushed fearlessly forward, 
sprang over the parapet, and dashed within Baum's earth- 
works. Rifle, bayonet, and butt of gun were in full play 
and a few moments' action finished the work. Glick cut his 
way through the Americans' columns and made his escape 
to tell the tale. The Hessian hirelings surpassed in valor 
the Canadians and Loyalists, who like the Indians retreated 
to the woods. 

Whatever the New Englanders lacked in military training, 
arms, and uniforms, they made up in daring self-command. 
Clad as they were, in linen tow trousers and shirt-sleeves, 
without cumbersome head-gear and knapsacks, they won an 
advantage on the steep and slippery embankment of the 
Walloomsac over the German Grenadiers in their full uniform 
and caps. 

Colonel Van Pfister's Tory redoubt on Van Pfister's Hill 
was surrounded by Colonels Hobart's, Stickney's, and Si- 
monds's New Hampshire and Berkshire Boys, who with 
"Fighting Parson" Thomas Allen, routed the Tories from 
their earthworks. The latter ran for their lives toward 
Baum's redoubt, only to meet his Hessians rushing down 
Baum's Height to the Walloomsac. The first man reported 
to leap over the Tory redoubt was Capt. Ebenezer Webster 
of Salisbury, N. H., father of the famous statesman, Daniel 
Webster. Jacob Onderkirk, a neighbor of Col. Francis J. Van 
Pfister, of White House near the site of Le Grand Tibbits's 
Lodge, west of White House Bridge in Hoosac, is reported 



342 The Hoosac Valley 

to have fired the fatal ball which mortally wounded the 
Tory colonel. The wounded Colonel Van Pfister was finally 
captured by Jonathan Armstrong of Dorset, Vt. 

Linius Parker of Lenox, Mass., reported that the fleeing 
Loyalists, while climbing the steep embankment of the 
Walloomsac, were followed by a volley of sharpshooters' 
bullets. Many of the wounded and dying rolled down the 
slope and into the swollen and tumultuous river. Herrick's 
Vermont Rangers fought with desperation about Baum's 
redoubt, approaching within eight paces of the loaded can- 
non in order to take surer aim at the gunners. Lieut. 
Joseph Rudd of Captain Dewey's West Bennington com- 
pany, in a letter dated August 26, 1777, ' said: "We marched 
right against Baum's breastworks with small arms, where 
the enemy fired their field pieces every half minute." They 
drove the Hessians from their earthworks. 

Baum's cannons were hauled to the rear of Stark's army 
by James Rogers's yoke of oxen. Nearly all of Baum's Hes- 
sians were slain or taken prisoners. Baum himself did not 
surrender until fatally wounded. He was captured by 
Lieut. Thomas Jewett of Capt. Dewey's West Bennington 
company. Both Baum's and Van Pfister's wounds were 
examined on the field by Dr. Oliver Partridge of Stock- 
bridge, Mass., and pronounced fatal. 

The dying commanders were borne on the backs of their 
captors to the Duer House, a quarter of a mile east of the 
State Line, in the town of Shaftsbury. The famous house 
stood until 1865 over the site of the well, still in use, on the 
north side of the road, opposite Stark's paper mill, in the 
hamlet of Sodom. Lieut. Thomas Jewett secured Baum's 
sword and Jonathan Armstrong obtained Van Pfister's set of 
draughting instruments, a map of the route from St. Johns, 
Canada, to Albany, together with his commission of lieut- 

• See Note 22 at end of volume. 



The Victory of Bennington 343 

enant-colonel, dated September 18, 1760, signed by General 
Sir Jeffrey Amherst. 

The roar of musketry and cannon during the first hour of 
the raging battle was heard twenty miles south of Benning- 
ton Centre, in Williamstown ; and the battle smoke was 
visible thirty miles westward on Bemis Heights, in Old 
Saratoga, N. Y. 

Brey man's army received marching orders to reinforce 
Baum from Sir Francis Clarke at eight o'clock, Thursday 
evening, August 14th, and left the Batten Kill Camp an hour 
later. His guide lost the road and on the rainy night of 
the 15th, Breyman halted his troops for the night seven 
miles below Old Cambridge Village. A message from Baum 
at early dawn on August i6th urged him forward with all 
speed. He arrived at St. Croix Bridge, two miles below 
Baum's Height, about half-past four o'clock, during the 
last struggle of Baum and his veteran Hessians. Here he 
was met by an advance guard of sixty Grenadiers and 
Chasseurs, and twenty riflemen under the Tory, Col. Philip 
Skene from Whitehall Manor. 

Colonel Breyman's army, however, was delayed half an 
hour at St. Croix by a body of American skirmishers, in- 
cluding William Gilmore, Thomas Mellen, and Jesse Field, 
who were in the act of tearing down the trestles of the bridge 
ever Little White Creek with axes. This delay gave Warn- 
er's reinforcements of one hundred and fifty Continentals 
from Manchester opportunity to arrive on the field in time 
to repulse Breyman's troopers and win the closing victory 
of August 16, 1777 — a day ever famous in the annals of 
American history. 

Breyman first announced his advance to Stark's scattered 
troops by a volley of grape-shot from his two large cannon. 
The "Fighting Parson" Allen said that the exhausted Gen- 
eral Stark became confused when he beheld Breyman's large 



344 The Hoosac Valley 

army; ?nd William Carpenter, a soldier of the Swansea 
company of the New Hampshire Regiment, according to 
his son, Judge Carpenter of Akron, Ohio, reported that Stark 
ordered his men to retreat. At that critical moment Col. 
Seth Warner and Maj. Isaac Stratton, the latter a member 
of Capt. Samuel Clark's South Williamstown company, 
rode up, and Thomas Mellen reported that the "Major 
on his black horse shouted, ' Fight on Boys, reinforcements 
close by'!" 

In about five minutes after the arrival of Major Stratton, 
Capt. Jacob Safford with one hundred and thirty of Col- 
onel Warner's Continentals arrived and fired upon Brey- 
man's right and left flanks. Stark's scattered men now took 
courage and fought desperately. Thomas Mellen's gun 
barrel became so hot that he could not handle it. He seized 
a dead Hessian's musket and continued to send the bullets 
flying to their deadly mark. Beholding the Tory Colonel 
Skene on his gray steed, waving his sword to Breyman's 
gunners, he sent a ball which felled his horse beneath him. 
Skene rose and cut the traces of one of the artillery horses, 
mounted, and rode off. 

The Council of Safety at Bennington Centre about six 
o'clock despatched a circular message to Williamstown, 
stating that "Stark is now in an action which has been for 
some time very severe. . . . The enemy were driven; but 
being reinforced, made a second stand and still continue the 
conflict. But we have taken their cannon, and prisoners, 
said to number four or five hundred, are now arriving." 

The second battle between Breyman and Stark continued 
for two hours, until after sunset. Stark stated that only 
darkness prevented the Patriots from capturing the whole 
body of Germans. Their cannon were both taken and 
turned upon the fleeing enemy. Colonel Breyman, unlike 
Colonel Baum, made his escape, although several of his 



The Victory of Bennington 345 

officers surrendered on the hill southwest of William Chase's 
homestead, near St. Croix Mill, in the hamlet of North Hoo- 
sac. Among Baum's and Breyman's officers made prisoners 
were one major, seven captains, fourteen lieutenants, four 
ensigns, two coronets, one judge-advocate, one Hessian 
chaplain, one surgeon and a German baron, an aide-de-camp 
of Colonel Baum, besides the Tory Colonel Van Pfister. 

The historian Bancroft, who had access to German reports, 
is authority for the statement that Baum's army contained 
more than four hundred Brunswickers, Hanan gunners with 
two cannon, a select corps of British marksmen, a party of 
French Canadians, a more numerous party of Provincial 
Loyalists, and a horde of about one hundred and fifty In- 
dians. General Stark also considered Colonel Breyman's rein- 
forcements a large army. According to historians Thatcher 
and Butler, it contained one thousand German regulars. 
After Baum's defeat, Aaron Hubbell and Josiah Dunning 
j reported that they left the battle-field as guard, placed over 
I six hundred prisoners. The Hessians and Tories were 
bound two by two with bed-cords and were marched to the 
First Church at Bennington Centre. As they passed " Cata- 
mount Tavern," landlord Stephen Fay stepped out and 
greeted the prisoners with a gracious bow, informing them 
that their dinner, which Colonel Baum had ordered by 
messenger for them the day before, was ready. 

The wounded on the American side consisted of about 

! forty-five men, who were borne to their homes on feather 

I beds, and the famous surgeon, Dr. William Porter of Wil- 

liamstown, Mass., attended them the following morning. 

Twenty-four hours after Colonels Baum and Van Pfister were 

wounded, they expired at the Duer House. Capt. Samuel i^J-'-' 

Robinson, left in charge of the dying officers, later related 

k| that "a more intelligent and brave officer he had never seen, 

than the unfortunate Lieut, -Colonel Baum." The German 



34^ The Hoosac Valley 

and the Tory commanders were buried side by side on the 
north bank of the Walloomsac, in Shaftsbury, Vt., beneath 
an elm tree in Charles B. Allen's meadow, a few rods west 
of the Stark paper-mill. Their graves have never been 
located nor marked. 

After the victory of Bennington, the Council of Safety sent 
a hogshead of rum to Stark's weary troopers encamped on the 
gruesome Walloomsac battle-field. Many drank more than 
they needed and overcome with heat, slept in a near-by corn- 
field, where each soldier shared a corn-hill for a pillow. Gen- 
eral Stark himself was ill two or three days after the battle. 

The heroic Hessians slain during Baum's battle were 
buried on William Mellen's farm, and during 1838 many of 
their mouldering bones were unearthed in a potato field 
near the present Bamet house. 

After Breyman's battle, the dead scattered between 
Mellen's Bridge and St. Croix, were gathered and buried in 
two great hollows east of the brick schoolhouse at Sickles's 
Mills, now Walloomsac hamlet. The Hessian prisoners who 
died from their wounds were buried later in the centre of 
the Old First Church burial-field at Bennington Centre. 
Their graves are now marked by a monument. 

The American trophies of war consisted of seven hundred 
stand of arms, four brass cannon, brass barrelled drums, 
several Hessian swords, about seven hundred prisoners. 
The number of the enemy's wounded is unknown. Two 
hundred and seven of the enemy were slain on the field. 
Burgoyne's Orderly Book recorded Baum's and Breyman's! 
loss, including killed, wounded, and prisoners, twelve hun- 
dred and twenty men, Lieut. Joseph Rudd' of Bennington, j 
in a letter dated August 26th, after the battles, states that, 
"one thousand of the enemy were slain and captured." 

General Washington considered the Victory of Benning-| 

' See Note 22, at end of volume. 



The Victory of Bennington 347 

ton "a great stroke." General Lincoln declared it to be 
" the capital blow of the Revolution," and historian Bancroft 
records it as "one of the most brilliant and eventful strokes 
of the Revolutionary War." The Rev. Wheeler Case, a 
contemporary poet, has expressed it thus: 

At Bennington, Stark gave the wound 
Which, like a gangrene, spread around. 

The Indians now ceased their scalping forays and two 
hundred and fifty savages joined the American army at Old 
Saratoga against the British. 

The Tory prisoners were guarded in Capt. Elijah Dewey's 
bam until September 4, 1777, and later removed to the log 
schoolhouse and Old First Church. During January, 1778^ 
Capt. Samuel Robinson detached a party of prisoners under 
guard to tread down the drifted roads over the Green Moun- 
tains to Col. William Williams's home in Wilmington, Vt. 
Others were banished from the Green Mountains, under 
penalty of death should they return ; and a few were sent to 
Simsbury Mines, the Revolutionary Newgate ' prison, located 
in the abandoned copper mines of East Granby, Conn., 
where they died. 

The two, small, three-pounder cannon, taken from Baum's 
redoubt on Baum's Height, are now in the State House at 
Montpelier, Vt. General Stark presented Massachusetts, 
New Hampshire, and Vermont one Hessian gun and bayonet, 
one broadsword, one brass-barrelled drum, and one Grena- 
dier's cap. The trophies presented to Massachusetts were 
suspended in the Senate Chamber at Boston, opposite the 
Speaker's chair. The copy of the letter of thanks from the 
President of the Committee of Safety to General Stark, 
dated after the surrender of the British at Old Saratoga, is 
of local interest to Hoosactonians : 

' Lippincotf s Magazine, March, 1881. 



348 The Hoosac Valley 

Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 

Boston, Dec. 5, i777- 
Sir* 

The General Assembly of this State take the earliest 

opportunity to acknowledge the receipt of your acceptable 
present, the token of victory gained at the memorable 
battle of Bennington.' The events of that day strongly 
marked the bravery of the men, who, unskilled m war, 
forced from their entrenchments a chosen number of veteran 
troops of boasted Britons, as well as the address and valor of 
the general who directed their movements, and led them on 
to conquest. This signal exploit opened the way to a rapid 
succession of advantages, most important to America. 

These trophies shall be safely deposited in the Archives 
of the State, and there remind posterity of the irresistible 
power of the God of armies in the honors due to the memory 

of the brave. 

Still attended with like successes, may you long enpy the 
reward of your grateful country. Jeremiah Powell, 

President of the Council 
To Brigadier-General John Stark. 
The centennial celebration of Stark's Victory of Benning- 
ton on August 16, 1877 was attended by thousands of de- 
scendants of the Revolutionary heroes, on the Old Military 
Parade grounds, southeast of Bennington Centre. Ruther- 
ford B. Hayes, President of the United States, and Mrs, 
Hayes were present, and the poet, Wallace Bruce of New 
England, read a poem descriptive of "Fighting Parson" 
Allen and the Berkshire Boys: 

The Catamount Tavern is lonely to-night; 

The Boys of Vermont and New Hampshire are here, 
Drawn up in line in the gloaming hght 

To greet Parson Allen with shout and with cheer. 
» The Americans' victory was reported by contemporaries as the "Battle 
Bennington," although won on banks of Walloomsac in Hoosac and \A,hit 
Creek, N. Y. Both Baum and Van Pfister died and were buried m Shaftsbur) 
Vermont. 





Bennington Battle Monument marking site of the Americans' Continental store- 
house of State Arms and Provision at the head of the Parade, Bennington Centre, 
Vermont, August i6, 1777. It is the highest Battle Monument in the -world and 
towers over 302 feet in height on the summit of Bennington Hill, overlooking 
the entire Hoosac and Walloomsac Valleys. The corner-stone was laid at the 
Centennial, August 16, 1877, ^^^d the monument dedicated August 16, i8qi, 
a century after Vermont's admittance to the Union. 

It needs no monumental pile The fair Green Hills rise proudly up 

To tell each storied name. To consecrate their fame. 

Rev. E. H. Chapin, Bennington Battle, 1837. 

349 



350 



The Hoosac Valley 



"To-morrow," said Stark, "there'll be fighting to do, 
If you think you can wait till the morning's light, 

And, Parson, I '11 conquer the British with you. 
Or my Molly will be a widow to-night!" 




One of the 
significant 
mottoes ob- 
served on the 
banners float- 
ing above the 
streets of his- 
toric Benning- 
ton declared 
that: "Molly 
Stark did not 
sleep a widow, 
August I 6, 

1777." 

The B e n - 
nington Battle 
Monument, 
towering over 
302 feet on the 
site of the Pro- 
vincial store- 
house, is a c - 
knowledged to be the highest battle monument in the world. 
It was dedicated, August 16, 1891, by a salute from Baum's 
cannon, captured August 16, 1777. General Burgoyne's 
camp-kettle, recovered after the surrender of the British at 
Old Saratoga, is now suspended in the main hall of the en- 
trance to the Bennington Monument. Here, too, should hang 
the portrait of General Stark, the " Hero of Bennington." He 



Camp-Kettle of General Burgoyne captured after the 
Surrender of the British at Old Saratoga, October 77, 1777. 
The historic Kettle now hangs in the Hall of Entrance 
to Betiningtoti Battle Monument. 



I 



The Victory of Bennington 351 

was bom in Nutfield, now Londonderry, N. H., in 1728, and 
made his residence later in Manchester, N. H. He was the 
hero of two wars and the survivor of a third. At his death 
in 1822 he was ninety-four years old, and the last but one 
of the American generals of the Revolution. His monument 
to-day commands a prospect several miles up and down the 
Merrimac Valley, near his native town. 

General Stark's Victory of Bennington proved to be the 
opening skirmish which led to the surrender of Burgoyne 
at Old Saratoga, two months later, on October 17, 1777. 

True to its trust, Walloomsac long 

The record bright shall bear; 
Who came up at the battle sound. 

And fought for freedom there.* 

'Rev. E. H. Chapin, Bennington Batik, 1837. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

surrender of the british at old saratoga 
October 17, 1777 

From Saratoga's hills we date the birth, — 
Our Nation's birth among the powers of earth. 

There to our flag bowed England's battle torn; 
Where now we stand th' United States was born. 

J. Watts De Peyster, The Surrender. 

Old Saratoga — American and British Encampments — Battles of September 
19th and October 7th — Burgoyne's Surrender — Evacuation of British — 
Centennial — Battle Monument, 1877. 

THE campaign ground of Old Saratoga, six miles in width 
on both banks of the Hudson between the Mohawk, 
Hoosac, Fish Creek, and Batten Kill, has witnessed many 
conflicts. It is principally interesting to the historian by 
having been the scene of the most decisive victory won by 
the Americans during the Revolution. 

Gen. Winfield Scott in 1857 visited the site of General 
Schuyler's American fortifications, built by the Polish 
engineer, Thaddeus Kosciusko, on Haver Island, below 
Cohoes Falls, and on Bemis Heights in Stillwater. He 
considered that those redoubts occupied the most formidable 
position on the banks of the upper Hudson for the defence 
of Albany. The Hudson Pass east of Bemis Heights, Bur- 
goyne acknowledged later, he dared not attempt to force. 
The slopes were crowned with battsries extending to the 
river's edge, and the constant fire of those guns prevented 

352 



Surrender of British at Old Saratoga 353 

the British from marching down the narrow Hudson Pass 
to Albany. 

The Old Saratoga intervale, located on both banks of the 
Hudson, between the junction of the Hoosac and Batten 
Kill, during Burgoyne's invasion consisted of a dense marsh- 
land clothed with pine, oak, and mixed wood. Scarcely a 
dwelling was to be found to a square mile between Fort 
Half -Moon and Fort Saratoga. The hamlet of Schuyler's 
Mills lay in the southwest angle of Fish Creek and Hudson 
River. It contained the Provincial storehouse. Gen. Philip 
Schuyler's mansion, mills, barns, and slaves' cottages. 
Dominie Drummond's Dutch Church was located at the 
junction of the road to Victory Village ; and the dwellings of 
Abram Marshall, Thomas Jordan, and John McCarty stood 
in the neighborhood. North of Fish Creek, lay the ruins 
of Fort Hardy, known as " Montressor's Folly," begun 
by Col. James Montressor in 1757, and Peter Lansing's 
dwelling, built in 1773, known to-day as the Marshall House. 
On the east bank of the Hudson, below the junction of the 
Batten Kill, stood the farmhouses of Thomas Rogers and 
Garret De Ridder. 

At Coveville, two miles south of Schuyler's Mills, Jacobus 
Swart built the Dovegat house about 1765 and was followed 
by Col. Cornelius Van Vechten and his three sons. General 
Burgoyne in 1777 made his headquarters at Dovegat House 
— the haunt of the wild pigeons. The name has its origin 
in the Dutch diiivenkot (dove-cote), according to Arnold 
J. F. Van Laer, the Albany Archivist. A mile below Dovegat 
stood the Sword House, and still farther south resided 
Ezekiel Ensign, John Taylor, David Shepherd, the Vernon 
and Van Denburgh families, and Fothem Bemis, at the base 
of Bemis Heights. The slopes west of John Taylor's house 
and Bemis' s Tavern were settled by Isaac Freeman, Fones 
Wilbur, John Neilson, Asa Chatfield, Simeon Barbour, 



354 The Hoosac Valley 

George Coulter, Ephraim Woodworth, and the McBrides. 

At Stillwater, three miles south of Bemis Heights, resided 
several Dutch and English families, including Dirck Swart 
and the Quakers, Gabriel and Isaac Leggett. Among other 
Old Saratoga patriots may be mentioned Capt, Hezekiah 
Dunham, Conrad Kremer, James Brisbin, John Walker, 
John Woeman, William Green, Thomas Smith , John Strover 
George Davis, Sherman Patterson, Daniel Guile, the Web- 
ster, Cross, and Denny families. 

General Schuyler on July 31, 1777, ordered General St. 
Clair and General Arnold to march their regiments to 
Schuyler's Mills. The Provincial stores were moved to 
Albany, while General Schuyler and his officers explored the 
Heights of Saratoga on horseback, hoping to locate a for- 
midable position to repulse the British. He was unsuccess- 
ful and on August 3d ordered his troops to Stillwater. 
General Schuyler made his headquarters in the Dirck Swart 
House, and on Wednesday, August 13th, while his men were 
building redoubts, news of Gen. Nicholas Herkimer's Victory 
of Oriskany on August 6th over Col. Barry St. Leger's 
Britishers reached Schuyler's Stillwater camp. 

A council of war was called at the Swart House about the 
same time that General Stark and his officers were holding 
a similar council at the Catamount Tavern at Bennington 
Centre to repulse Col. Frederick Baum's Hessians on August 
16, 1777. Notwithstanding the fact that General Schuyler 
expected Burgoyne to break up his Batten Kill encampment, 
he sent General Arnold with a detachment up the Mohawk 
to defend Fort Schuyler against St. Leger's troops. St 
Leger, however, informed Burgoyne that the Mohawk 
Valley forts required a train of artillery of which he was not 
master. General Washington's main army at that time 
was watching the movements of the British under Generals 
Howe and Clinton, located in the Delaware Basin and in 



Surrender of British at Old Saratoga 355 

New York Bay. He was unable to send reinforcements to 
General Schuyler to hold back Burgoyne's ten thousand 
troops from Canada. 

After General Arnold's regiment marched up the Mohawk, 
General Schuyler broke up his Stillwater encampment, 
August 15th, and encamped at the "Sprouts of the 
Mohawk," near Waterford. The same day the Berkshire 
and Bennington volunteers rallied at General Stark's Wal- 
loomsac encampment in Bennington, where they were des- 
tined to win the Victory of Bennington, the following day. 
General Schuyler made his headquarters at Van Schaick's 
Mansion on Van Schaick's Island. His engineer, Kosciusko, 
built earthworks on the crescent points of Haver Island, 
south of the Fourth Sprout of the Mohawk, which are 
reached to-day by the bridge at the foot of Second Street, 
south of the Union Toll Bridge in Waterford. 

General Schuyler's movements led the New Englanders 
to brand him, however, as a coward and to suspect him as 
disloyal to the Americans' Cause. Later, Congress retired 
him, without the sanction of Gen. George Washington, and 
appointed Gen. Horatio Gates in his place. Yet Gen. Philip 
Schuyler's knowledge of Half-Moon and Saratoga manors, 
his superior generalship, patriotism, and generous purse 
proved his loyalty to and bravery in behalf of the Americans' 
cause. Next to Robert Morris, the financier of the Revo- 
lution, General Schuyler advanced a larger sum than any one 
else, amounting to £20,000, much of which was neverreturned 
to him by the United States. 

General Gates arrived at Van Schaick's Mansion with his 
commission as Commander of the Northern Department of 
the American Army on August 19th, and General Schuyler 
retired. A council of war was called to which Gates did not 
invite Schuyler. Gouverneur Morris at the time said that : 
"The new Commander-in-Chief . . . may, if he please, 



356 The Hoosac Valley 



neglect to ask or disdain to receive advice; but those whr 
know him well, I am sure, are convinced that he needs it." 

After the simultaneous clipping of both Burgoyne's right 
and left wings at Oriskany on August 6th, and at Bennington 
ten days later, six thousand American troops were set at 
liberty and rallied at Schuyler's Hudson Valley encamp- 
ments. Generals Lincoln and Stark marched their troojis 
from Manchester and Bennington, Vt., to guard Loudon's 
ferry on the east bank of the Hudson. General Arnold's 
troops, after their return from Fort Schuyler, were postc^d 
at the Mohawk ford on the west bank of the Hudson. Gen- 
eral Gates, however, attributed this grand rally of New Eng- 
land troops to his having been appointed, although most of 
the volunteers were on the march at the time General 
Schuyler retired. 

Gates soon considered that his army was large enough 
to repulse Burgoyne's army, and presently marched up the 
Hudson. 

The American army encamped at Stillwater, September 
8th, and General Gates ordered his men to throw up en- 
trenchments. Engineer Kosciusko considered Bemis Heights, 
three miles north of Stillwater Village, a more formidable 
position, and on September 13th, Gates moved his army 
to that place. He made his headquarters at Fothem Bemis' s 
Tavern and ordered a floating bridge built over the Hudson. 
Batteries were mounted from the river edge westward to the 
summit of Bemis Heights; and John Neilson's farmhouse' 
was converted into Fort Neilson, where General Gates and 
his officers made their headquarters. Willard, the famous 
scout, posted himself with his field-glass on his own Mount 
Willard, six miles east of Fort Neilson, and signalled Bur- 
goyne's movements to the Americans on Bemis Heights. 
Burgoyne, although unfamiliar with the swampy intervali^ 
of the Hudson, failed to send out scouts to locate Gates's 



Surrender of British at Old Saratoga 357 

army, yet he could hear the bugle-call and drum-beat of 
the Americans each morning, 

Burgoyne broke up his Batten Kill Camp and built a 
pontoon bridge of scows 425 feet in length, over the Hud- 
son September 13th. After General Riedesel's right wing 
crossed over the bridge on the 15th, Burgoyne ordered the 
bridge broken up and marched his army south, two miles 
to Coveville. His headquarters were at Swart 's Dovegat 
House and the next morning on horseback he explored the 
slopes about Wilbur Basin, hoping to locate the American 
Camp. 

On September 17th, Burgoyne moved his army one mile 
south of Dovegat and encamped on the Sword farm. A 
party of his men and women, while digging potatoes in a 
field, were surprised by an ambuscade of Americans and 
twenty were captured with their baskets of potatoes. Col- 
onel Colburn with a party of New Hampshire scouts early 
on September 19th climbed trees on the east bank of the 
Hudson, opposite the Sword cottage, and gained a view of the 
British encampment. They counted eight hundred tents 
and observed movements indicating Burgoyne's advance, 
after which the Americans made ready for battle. 

About eleven o'clock Burgoyne's army began to advance 
in battle order of three columns against the central line of 
the Americans at Fort Neilson. General Arnold urged 
Gates to advance his army and meet the British in the Mid- 
dle Ravine, north of Freeman's clearing. But Gates did not 
think well of this advice. However, at half-past twelve 
Gates sent General Morgan and his Virginian Sharpshooters, 
together with General Dearborn's New Hampshire troops, 
forth to meet Major Forbes' s scouting brigade of Indians 
near Freeman's cottage. Half an hour later, Burgoyne's 
main army lined up on the north side of the clearing. Fra- 
ser's brigade marched up on the western flanks and Riedesel's 



358 The lloosac Valley 

regiment was stationed on the eastern flanks along the 
Hudson River Road. 

At four o'cloek the battle ragetl furiously between Fraser 
and Arnold. Each was dcterminetl on victory or ileal h. 
The two armies met at the point of the bayonet, only to 
break, retreat, and return again and again with renewed 
fury. As twilight deepened Rietlesel's (lennaii (Irenatliers 
and Breyman's Hessians rushed up the eastern slope of 
Bemis Heights, mounted Captain Pausch's battery, vsouth of 
Freeman's cottage, and forced Arnold's antl Morgan's sharp- 
shooters to retreat. Darkness soon fell over the Saratoga 
Hills atid Burgoyne ordered his men lo cease firing. The 
Americans claimed the victory of the day, since they lost 
only 319 men, ten per cent, of their forces, while the British 
lost 600 men, twenty per cent. o( their troops engageti. 

It was Burgoyne's intention to open a second battle the 
next morning, but owing to a heavy fog hovering over the 
hills and ravines of Old Saratoga initil late in the day, he 
gave the afternoon to his men to rest, and for the care of the 
wounded and burial of the dead. At that period jxacks of 
wolves roamed throughout the Taconac and Catskill Moun- 
tains, and their imcanny bowlings about the mounds of the 
dead disturbed the wounded troopers' sleep in both the 
British and American camps. 

It was fortunate for the cause of the Americans that fog 
lowered over the Hudson on the morning of September 20th, 
as Gates was short of lead. Burgoyne could have easily 
driven Gates's whole army ahead of him like unresisting 
sheep down the Hudson to the sea. Kingsley wrote later 
that "the Americans' victory in 1777 was due more to the 
'strategy of Providence' than to superior generalship." 

A message from General Clinton reached Burgoyne, 
September 21st. He reported that he had cleared the log 
boom and mammoth iron chain across the Hudson and had 



Surrender of British at Old Saratoga 359 

entered Newburgh Bay, September 19th. Burgoyne be- 
lieved, therefore, that Gates would withdraw a part of his 
troops to repulse Clinton's advance. He delayed his second 
battle and built the Great Redoubt southwest of Freeman's 
well on September 22d. He then awaited Clinton's reinforce- 
ments. This delay gave General Schuyler time to send out 
orders for the lead weights from all the Albany mansion win- 
dows. These were converted into bullets, which were shipped 
to Fort Neilson on Bemis Heights as soon as moulded. 

Time passed, and on October 5th Burgoyne held a council 
of war and reported that there were on hand, only sixteen 
days' rations for his army. General Riedesel advised a 
retreat to Canada ; General Philip remained neutral ; General 
Fraser agreed with Burgoyne that retreat was impossible 
to a Briton. 

The deep blue heavens arched serenely above the autum- 
nal woodlands, brilliant in their gold and crimson robes, 
when on October 7th the British began active preparations 
to invite a second battle with the Americans. At ten o'clock 
Burgoyne, accompanied by Fraser, Riedesel, and Philip and 
their brigades and artillery began their advance. A scouting 
party of Indians and Canadians were followed by three 
columns, consisting of 1500 of England's skilled marksmen. 
When they arrived at a position overlooking the encampment 
of the Americans, several officers climbed to the roof of Asa 
Chatfield's log dwelling and with their field-glasses gained 
a full view of Gates's Camp. 

The attack that the Americans planned against Burgoyne's 
army on October /th, proved to be similar to the plan 
of attack of General vStark in surrounding Baum's troops 
on the Walloomsac battle-field. General Morgan and his 
Virginian sharpshooters were ordered to make a wide cir- 
cuit to Burgoyne's rear right; General Poor and his New 
York and New Hampshire troops were directed to make a 



360 The Hoosac Valley 

circuit through the forests to Burgoyne's rear left; and Gen- 
erals Dearborn and Learned with their brigades of riflemen 
were ordered to march against Burgoyne's centre column. 
Upon the arrival of each regiment at its appointed post, at 
a prearranged signal from Morgan's sharpshooters, a simul- 
taneous volley of bullets broke upon the British rear, right, 
and left flanks. The centre troops charged Burgoyne's front 
ranks and broke through his column. This resulted in a 
hand to hand struggle, which consumed half of the first 
hour of fighting. 

The deadly aim of Morgan's sharpshooters caused the 
Earl of Balcarres's regiment on Burgoyne's western flank to 
retreat. Major Williams was captured and the Americans 
seized his 12-pounder gun. Major Ackland was seriously 
wounded in both legs, and the fact that he was incapacitated 
precipitated a panic among his Grenadiers. At that moment 
Colonel Cilly leaped upon the British cannon and fired it 
against the fleeing Britons and Germans. General Morgan 
soon observed General Fraser advancing, and like a tornado 
he forced the western ridge with his Virginians and displaced 
Fraser's brigade of marksmen. 

Meanwhile Gates had humbled Arnold by relieving him 
of his command. Arnold begged permission to serve as a 
volunteer soldier but was refused. At last he dared Gates 
to follow him as he dashed out of Fort Neilson. He leaped 
upon his bay charger, put the spurs to his steed, and was soon 
among the American patriots. 

Once upon the field of action, Arnold forgot that he was no 
longer a commanding general as did the soldiers. At that 
moment Fraser's brigade rushed forward to relieve the Hes- 
sians, and Morgan rallied his sharpshooters forward to rescue 
Arnold's men. Fraser, mounted on his noble gray charger, 
was soon observed urging his men forward, when both 
Arnold and Morgan decided that he must fall. Morgan, 



Surrender of British at Old Saratoga 36 [ 

addressing the sharpshooter, Timothy Murphy, and pointing 
out General Fraser, said: "It is necessary for our cause that 
he should die. Take your station in that cluster of trees 
and do your duty." 

General Fraser was mortally wounded and was borne 
from the field of action to the John Taylor House three miles 
east, near the bank of the Hudson, and General Burgoyne 
took command of his brigade. At that critical moment 
General Ten Broeck of Albany arrived upon the battle-field 
with three thousand fresh troops, including Col. Johannes 
Knickerbacker's 14th New York Regiment from Dutch 
Hoosac. They shouted exultantly at the Britons and Ger- 
mans, who, struck with panic, fled to their redoubts. 

General Arnold, beholding the enemy fleeing to their 
earthworks, galloped the whole length of the American line, 
and urged the Patriots forward to attack Burgoyne's 
troopers before they had time to gain vantage ground. In 
the attack Arnold's horse fell beneath him and he was 
wounded in his injured ankle. He was soon rescued by 
Major Armstrong, however, and removed to Fort Neilson 
to face General Gates's frowning visage. Colonel Specht of 
Balcarres's regiment endeavored to recover Colonel Brey- 
man's lost position. He was headed as he believed by a 
Loyalist, but he and four officers and fifty men were made 
prisoners by the traitor. Owing to the approach of dark- 
ness fighting ceased. Had it not. General Burgoyne's whole 
army would have been chased from their earth burrows, and 
General Ten Broeck's Albany Regiment would have won 
a greater fame than that of merely shouting after the Ameri- 
cans' victory had already been won. 

The loss of the Americans was one hundred and fifty, 
including killed and wounded. Arnold was the only 
wounded officer. The British lost seven hundred killed and 
wounded. Generals Fraser and Francis Clarke and Colonel 



362 The Hoosac Valley 

Breyman were mortally wounded ; and Colonel Specht, Majors 
Williams and Ackland were captured. The latter was pain- 
fully wounded in both legs, while General Burgoyne, unlike 
General Gates, fought with his men through the hottest 
battles at the point of the bayonet but escaped without a 
scratch. 

General Fraser died the following morning and his burial 
took place at sunset on the summit of the Great Redoubt. 
Burgoyne abandoned his four hundred wounded soldiers in 
their rude hospital to the mercy of the Americans at nine 
o'clock in the evening, and began his retreat, during a pouring 
rain, to Dovegat House. General Gates, during the early 
morning, posted General Fellows and thirteen hundred men 
on the Heights of Saratoga to guard against the retreat of 
the British to Lake George and Canada. The mad General 
Burgoyne proved to be too weak in character, according to 
the Brunswick Journal of England, "to resist his orgies" 
and make his escape northward. On October 9th, in spite 
of General Riedesel's advice, he halted at Schuyler's Mansion 
and celebrated his defeat with a feast over sparkling glasses, 
while his soldiers were forced to sleep under trees in the 
pouring rain, protected only by their oilcloth blankets. This 
resulted in the British army being entrapped on the Heights 
of Saratoga until Burgoyne was starved into surrender. 

The Americans' plan of surrounding the British camp 
placed Morgan's Virginian sharpshooters, Leamed's bri- 
gade, and the Pennsylvania troops west of the present site of 
the Battle Monument; the New Hampshire, Massachusetts, 
and Connecticut regiments east of the Hudson; the New 
York, New Jersey, and other New England regiments south 
of Fish Creek. General Stark's New Hampshire, Berkshire, 
and Bennington veterans, during the evening of October 
1 2th, encamped in the Fort Edward Pass on the west bank 
of the Hudson, north of the Heights of Saratoga, and closed 



Surrender of British at Old Saratoga 363 

the trail during the critical hour Burgoyne had made his 
final plans to escape to Canada. 

On October 13th, the Americans were thus enabled to 
make a circuit of the British encampment. Their batteries 
kept up a constant fire upon the quarters of Burgoyne 's 
officers, and were hoarsely answered by the heavy British 
artillery during the siege. On the morning of October 13th 
Burgoyne held a council of war with his officers and deliber- 
ated upon capitulation. At that critical moment an Ameri- 
can cannon ball rolled across the table at which Burgoyne 
sat, and this speedily brought him to a decision. A truce 
was sent to General Gates, requesting him to receive a field- 
officer on matters of high moment to both armies. Gates 
appointed ten o'clock on the following morning for the 
interview. 

News of General Clinton's advance forty miles below 
Albany led Gates to sign Burgoyne 's own terms of surrender 
before he was assured of Clinton's reinforcements. The 
articles of capitulation were signed by representatives of the 
British and American commanders at eight o'clock in the 
evening, October 15th, at a tent south of the site of the Old 
Horicon Mill at Schuylerville. On the morning of October 
1 6th, Clinton's scout made his way through the American 
lines by way of the Tory outpost at Fort Schaghticoke, and 
delivered a dispatch at the British encampment. As a 
result, Burgoyne delayed signing the treaty until Gates's 
officers drew up the American troops in battle order early 
October 17th, and invited Burgoyne to sign it before sunrise 
or face them in battle. He then marched down the Indian 
trail, now Burgoyne Avenue in Schuylerville, and signed 
the Articles of Convention'^ beneath an elm tree. The famous 
Treaty Elm remained standing until about 1890, when it 
was burned down. 

'Rev. J. H. Brandow, Story of Old Saratoga, pp. 152-155, 1900. 



364 The Hoosac Valley 

The British and German prisoners later stacked their 
arms in the field between the Treaty Elm and the Hudson 
River, in the presence of Colonel Wilkinson and Morgan 
Lewis. Many of the soldiers bade farewell to their muskets 
with tears; others threw them down with oaths; and the 
drummers stamped in their drum-heads. 

The final scene of the formal surrender of General Bur- 
goyne was observed by a small lad named John P. Becker, 
who subsequently described the historical event under the 
name of ' ' Sexagenary." By a prearranged signal the British 
prisoners halted near Gates's tent; Burgoyne drew his sword 
and presented it to Gates in full view of both the American 
and British armies. The American soldiers were Hned up 
on either side of the Hudson River Road, between which 
marched the conquered Britons and Germans. 

General Gates received General Burgoyne' s surrendered 
sword with due ceremony and soon returned it to him again. 
This act was followed by an American escort unfurhng the 
flag' of the Stars and Stripes of the United States, to which 
bowed England's battle-torn flag. It was saluted by the 
drum corps playing the tune of Yankee Doodle. The 
lyrical poem, set to this tune, described the motley regiments 
of New Englanders, during the French and Indian War, 
known as the Macedonian Conquerors. It was composed by 
Dr. Shackburg, near Fort Crailo's well, in Greenbush, N. Y., 
during June, 1758, while General Abercrombie awaited the 
arrival of the bands of Yankee volunteers before marching 
against Montcalm's French and Indians on Lake Champlain. 

The number of British and German soldiers surrendered 
by Burgoyne on October 17, 1777, amounted to 5791, includ- 

' The design of the American Flag was adopted by the Continental Congress 
June 14, 1777. The wives of the American officers at Albany and Saratoga 
took their red, white, and blue linsey petticoats and hastily made the Flag of 
the United States unfurled at Old Saratoga on October 17, 1777. 



Surrender of British at Old Saratoga 365 

ing four members of Parliament, besides 1856 prisoners and 
wounded. The burial mounds on Bemis Heights contained 
1200 dead, and fifty Hessians and innumerable Canadians 
and Indian volunteers deserted Burgoyne's ranks even before 
his surrender. 

The American army under Gates consisted of 9,093 Con- 
tinentals and 16,000 volunteer yeomanry, making a total of 
over 25,000 men, besides camp-followers and civilians from 
all parts of the thirteen United States, The British and 
American armies combined thus consisted of over 35,000 men, 
posted between Fish Creek and the junction of the Hoosac 
and Mohawk with the Hudson. 

The British prisoners destined for Boston, marched down 
to Wilbur Basin and encamped for the night. On the 
following morning the Germans were separated from the 
English. The latter desired to march up the Old Cambridge 
Road to Bennington Centre, and they crossed the Americans' 
floating bridge opposite Bemis Tavern. They were joined by 
the Hessian prisoners at Bennington, captured by General 
Stark on August i6th, and marched over the Pownal Centre 
Road to Williamstown, and joined Burgoyne's staff at 
Henderson's storehouse, which is still standing in Old Stock- 
bridge, Mass, 

Many of the homesick Germans died of heart failure. 
The survivors crossed the Van Denburg Ferry to the east 
bank of the Hudson and encamped at Fort Schaghticoke. 
On October 19th, they marched up the Tomhannac Road to 
Claverack, and turned eastward over the Old Military Road 
and joined the British and Burgoyne's staff at Henderson's 
storehouse, in Old Stockbridge, Mass. Many Hessians as 
well as Britons escaped from the home-ranks on their march 
through Hoosac Valley. Among them may be mentioned 
the Welshman, George Rex Davis of Dutch Hoosac, N. Y. ; 
the Englishmen, Rich and Beverly; and the Hessians, John 



366 The Hoosac Valley 

Blake and Johann Hintersass, known later as John Hender- 
son in Williamstown, Mass. The Beverly family resided 
in White Oaks and Henderson on Henderson Road over Oak 
Hill in Williamstown. The latter's son, George, died in 
i860, leaving many descendants, even to-day bearing the 
distinct Hessian type. 

Meanwhile, on October i8th, Burgoyne's staff first visited 
Albany. As the cavalcade reached Broadway, a witty son 
of Limerick, elbowing and shouting, came upon the scene: 

Now, shure and ye '11 shtand back an' giv' Gineral Ber- 
gine plenthy av ilbow room right here in Albany ! I say, ye 
darthy ribels, fall back an' giv' th' great Gineral room to come 
along here in Albany! Och, fer hiven's sake, ye cowardly 
shpalpeens, do ye shtand aside to th' right and lift and make 
more ilbow room fer Gineral Bergine or, by Saint Patrick, 
I '11 murther iv'ry mother's son av ye!! » 

The British officers were royally entertained at Gen. 
Philip Schuyler's Mansion. Philip J. the nine-year-old son 
of General Schuyler, mischievously opened the door of 
General Burgoyne's chamber on the morning of October 
19th and burst out laughing upon beholding his guards 
slumbering upon mattresses placed on the floor. He closed 
the door significantly, exclaiming, "Now you are all my 
prisoners!" Thus was the British Commander captured 
twice. This little incident, recorded Marquis De Chastellux, 
served only to remind Burgoyne of his misfortunes, and 
although humorous to a degree, it greatly depressed him. 

It was not known in 1777 why General Howe failed to 
make a juncture with General Burgoyne at Albany. Lord 
Edmund FitzMaurice recently unearthed Lord Shelburne's 
memorandum, proving that Lord George Germaine, during 
1777, hastily called at the Colonial Secretary's Office on his 

' Simm's Frontiersmen of New York, II, p. 132. 



Surrender of British at Old Saratoga 367 

way to attend a fox hunt in Kent; he signed several orders 
but, upon glancing at Howe's Despatch, he refused to sign it 
on the ground that it was not "fair copied." The order thus 
got "pigeon-holed," Providentially for the American Cause; 
and Lord Germaine thought of it no more. 

Sir Edward Shepherd Creasy said of the Victory of Old 
Saratoga : ' ' Nor can any military event be said to have exer- 
cised more important influence on the future fortunes of 
mankind than the complete defeat of Burgoyne's expedi- 
tion," on October 17, 1777. 

The corner-stone of Saratoga Battle Monument was laid 
at the Centennial celebration on October 17, 1877. 

Then let yon granite shaft of grace 

Forever be a rallying place 

For liberty and honor, till the day 

The stone is dust, the river dried away.' 

' C. H. CrandaU. 



CHAPTER XIX 

ETHAN ALLEN AND THE ALLEN FAMILY 

Of the Green Mountains one might probably say: they are more generally admired 
than visited. . . . Poets sing ivithout seeing them. . . . That they stimulate 
the virtues of the patriot is one of those axioms which one meets over and over again 
in the pages of writers who have never felt their rugged breezes. — Paraphrase from 
De Montesquieu's Spirit of Laws. 

The Allen Family — Ethan Allen — Education, Religion, Marriage — Captivity 
in England — Oracles of Reason — Anecdotes- — Ira Allen— Death of Seth 
Warner — Death of Ethan Allen — Death of Ira Allen — Heroic Monuments. 

LOVE of liberty was Ethan Allen's' sincere passion as it 
' was of his youngest brother, Ira Allen. The Allen 
family of New England descended from Matthew, Samuel, 
Thomas, and John Allen, sons of Samuel Allen, Esq., of 
Chelmsford, Essex County, who was a descendant of Sir 
Thomas Allen, Bart., of Thaxsted Grange, Braintree, Eng- 
land. They claimied kinship with the ancient crusader, Allain, 
commander of the rear guard under William the Conqueror, 
during the decisive Battle of Hastings, in 1066. The Allen 
crest represents a demi-lion azure, holding in his two paws 
the rudder of a vessel bearing the motto, Fortiter gerit 
Crucem. 

"Fighting Parson" Thomas Allen, first minister of Pitts- 
field, Mass., descended from Matthew Allen; and Col. Ethan 
Allen descended from Samuel Allen, the grandson of the 
original Samuel Allen, who located at Old Deerfield, Mass. 
His son Joseph, born in 1708, moved to Old Litchfield, Conn., 
and it is recorded that Joseph and his widowed mother, 

' See illustration, Chapter xv. 

368 



Ethan Allen and the Allen Family 369 

Mercy Allen, resided in Litchfield in 1728. On March 11, 
1736, Joseph Allen, at the age of twenty-eight, married 
Mary Baker of Woodbury, Conn., sister of EHsha Baker, 
who settled near Baker Bridge in Williamstown, Mass., and 




The Joseph Allen House, Old Litchfield Hill, ConnecHcut. The birthplace 

of Ethan Allen, the Hero of Ticonderoga, who was horn in the room 

on the left side of the front door, January lo, 1737. 

of Remember Baker, the father of Capt. Remember Baker, 

who located in the Walloomsac Valley in 1765. 

At Joseph Allen's homestead in Litchfield, "Ethan Allen, 

I'Ye son of Joseph and Mary his wife, was born on January 

jYe loth 1737." The house remains unchanged and is 

I'owned by the Aylward family. The "Daughters of the 

Revolution" have erected a tablet on the house, marking the 

birthplace of the "Hero of Ticonderoga." About 1740, 

Joseph Allen moved to Cornwall, Conn., where he died in 

1755. He left six sons and two daughters, Ethan, Heman, 

Heber, Levi, Zimri, Ira, Lydia, and Lucy. 
(,24 _ _ ^ 



370 The Hoosac Valley 

The educational opportunities of Ethan Allen consisted (^f 
three months' instruction under Parson Lee of Salisbur\-, 
Conn. In 1840 the venerable Jehial Johns of Huntingttni, 
Conn., at the age of eighty-five years, informed historian 
Zadoc Thompson of Wrmont, that young Ethan Allen 
boarded at a Mrs. Wadham's about 1759 while preparing for 
college. At that time, he was greatly influenced by Dr. 
Thomas Young of the Oblong in Dutchess County, N. Y., 
who lectured against Jonathan Edward's System of Divine 
Revelation. Dr. Young was prosecuted, convicted, and 
punished for blasphemy. Between 1760 and 1766, bolhj 
Dr. Young and Ethan Allen began a theological work entitled 
The Oracle of Reason, contending against the necessity of 
Divine Revelation. They agreed that whichever one of 
them outlived the other should publish the work. 1 

On June 23, 1762, Ethan Allen, at the age of twenty-five| 
years, married IMary Brownson, a granddaughter of Richard 
Bro\ATison of Framingham, Conn. The ceremony was per- 
formed by Parson Daniel Brinsmade of the Judea Chureli 
of Woodbury, and Allen paid the usual fee of four shillings 
for the tying of the knot. The Brownson family never sanc- 
tioned their daughter's marriage with Ethan Allen, owing 
to his irreligious views. Four years after his marriage in' 
1766, he was called to Bennington to defend the Green 
Mountain settlers' rights in the Albany- Court of Ejectment. 
He left his family with his sister, Lucy Bebee, at Shefhekl, 
and before his capture by the British in the autumn of 1775, 
both he and Ira Allen built homes on the north bank of thd 
Batten Kill in Sunderland, on the New Hampshire Grants. 

During the perilous year of 1777, after her son Joseph's 
death, Molly Allen, together with her four daughters, 
Lorraine, Lucy, Mary Ann, and Parmelia, and accompanied 
by her brother, Lieut. Eli Brownson, located at Sunderland. 
Ethan Allen remained in an English prison two years and 



Ethan Allen and the Allen Family 371 

eight months until exchanged for Lieut, -Col. John Campbell, 
May 6, 1778. Broken in health but not in spirit he arrived 
in New York City and later visited General Washington's 
headquarters at Valley Forge. In a letter addressed to the 
President of Congress, Washington said of Allen "that 
his fortitude and firmness seem to have placed him out of 
the reach of misfortune. There is an original something 
about him that commands admiration, and his long captivity 
and sufferings have only served to increase, if possible, his 
enthusiastic zeal." 

Dr. Thomas Young died in Philadelphia during the 
autumn of 1777, and Ethan Allen visited Mrs. Young in 
Dutchess County, N. Y., on his way to Bennington, Vt., 
and procured the manuscript of their theological work. On 
May 31, 1778, as the long shadows of Mount Anthony fell 
aslant the Walloomsac, the "Hero of Ticonderoga" arrived 
at the "Catamount Tavern" on Bennington Hill, Col. 
Samuel Herrick's Continental Regiment fired three cannon 
at sunset to announce Allen's return to the Bennington 
and Berkshire Boys. 

At sunrise on the following morning a large crowd assem- 
bled on the Parade, and Colonel Herrick fired off fourteen 
guns — thirteen for the original United States and the four- 
teenth for the State of Vermont. Dr. Lemuel Hopkins 
read a poem of welcome for the returned captive, Ethan 
Allen, and it was a day famous in Vermont's history. 

See him on green hills north afar, 
Glow like some self-enkindled star. 

Behold him move, ye staunch divines, 
His tall brow bristHng through the pines, 
Like some old sachem from his den 
He treads once more the haunts of men.^ 

* Dr. Smith, Collection of American Poetry, Litchfield, Ct., 1794. 



372 The Hoosac Valley 

Congress later conferred the rank and emolument of 
lieutenant-colonel upon Allen. He represented the town 
of Arlington for three years, and during July, 1782, he com- 
pleted the revisions of Dr. Thomas Young's and his own 
manuscript on theology, entitled : Reason, the Only Oracle of 
Man, or A Compendious System of Natural Religion. It 
was published by Anthony Haswell and Nathaniel Russell, 
editor and printer of the Vermont Gazette, in the Haswell 
Building, located on the site of the present Battle Monu- 
ment. 

Most of the first edition remained in proof-sheets when 
the building burned. Editor Haswell regarded this as an in- 
terposition of Divine Providence to prevent the circulation 
of a book advocating irreligion. The book was known to the 
Green Mountain Boys as Ethan Allen's Bible, but the author 
referred to it as The Oracle of Reason. Both Dr. Young and 
Ethan Allen believed in Jehovah, the Supreme Creator and 
Governor of the Universe, and in the reward or punishment 
during the future state of immortal man. Allen sent a copy 
to the Hon. St. John-s of the Academy of Arts and Science 
in Paris, by whose sentence he expected to stand or fall. 
This work was followed in 1793 by Thomas Paine's Age of 
Reason during the French Revolution, which did much to 
arouse the Hoosactonians against slavery. 

Molly Allen, the wife of Ethan Allen, died during July, 
1783, and according to the venerable Dr. Ebenezer Hitch- 
cock, was buried in the Congregational churchyard of 
Arlington, three miles from their Sunderland home. A 
little later Lorraine, her eldest daughter, died and was 
buried in the Sunderland burial-field, south of the site of 
the Allen cottage on the bank of the Batten Kill. She 
inherited her father's skepticism and before her death 1 
asked him: "Whose faith shall I embrace, yours or that of 
my mother?" 



Ethan Allen and the Allen Family 373 

"Not, not in mine," with choking voice, 

The skeptic made reply — 
"But in thy mother's holy faith. 

My daughter, may'st thou die."^ 

Allen's daughter, Lucy, married the Hon. S. Hitchcock; 
Parmelia married Eleazer W. Keyes, and Mary Ann married 
Mr. Forbes, all of Burlington, Vt. 

Ethan Allen despised the liar, thief, and hypocrite. He 
was sued once upon a promissory note for £60 and he engaged 
a lawyer to procure a continuance. The attorney denied 
Allen's signature as the quickest method of obtaining a con- 
tinuance. Allen pushed his way through the crowd and 
confronted his councillor saying : " I did not hire you to come 
here to lie. That is my true note; I signed it; I '11 swear to 
it; and I '11 pay it. I want no shuffling, but wish time." It 
was speedily granted him by the judge. 

During 1778, Thomas Chittenden of Arlington was elected 
Governor of Vermont; Joseph Marsh, Lieutenant-Governor; 
Ira Allen, Treasurer and Surveyor- General, and Ethan Allen, 
Major-General of the State Militia. Ira Allen proved to be 
the greatest diplomatist of the Revolutionary period and the 
most successful business manager of the Allen brothers. 
He represented the Onion River Land Company, controlling 
the settlement of eleven townships between Ferrisburgh and 
the Canadian borders, covering 30,000 acres of Champlain 
Valley. Levi Allen was the Tory member of the Allen 
brothers, and he was lodged in New London jail and adver- 
tised as a dangerous Tory in the Connecticut Courant by his 
brother Ethan, he believed. He was set at liberty after six 
months and challenged Ethan Allen to fight a duel with pis- 
tols. Later he joined the British army in South Carolina 
until the close of hostilities in 1783. He resided in Canada 

'Anon., "The Infidel and his Daughter," 1783, reprinted in Vermont 
Historical Gazetteer. 



374 The Hoosac Valley 

and England for seven years after the Revolution and was 
greatly at odds with the world at large. He returned to 
Burlington, Vt., in 1790 and refused to pay taxes. He was 
lodged in jail and died in 1802. He was buried in the 
prison's potter-field. 

Ethan Allen was unconventional to the extreme. On May 
27, 1779, he appeared at the Westminster Court-House 
attired in military uniform. Noah Smith was closing an 
argument in which he cited Blackstone as authority. Col- 
onel Allen, believing that Vermont's State attorney mani- 
fested too great leniency toward the prisoner, arose and 
addressed the jury, stating that in the observations that he 
was about to make he should not deal in quibbles. "I 
would have that young gentleman to know that from the 
eternal fitness of things I can upset his Blackstones, his 
whitestones, his gravestones, and his brimstones." Chief 
Justice Moses Robinson of Bennington arose at this junc- 
ture and informed Allen that it was not allowable for him to 
appear in court with his sword by his side. This interrup- 
tion nettled Allen. He unslung his weapon and brought it 
down on the table with a force that made the house ring, 
and exclaimed: 

For forms of government let fools contest, 
Whate'er is best administered is best. 

Observing the judges whispering, he added: "I said that 
fools might contest for forms of government — not your 
Honors, not your Honors." 

During 1780, a letter was handed mysteriously to Ethan 
Allen in Arlington, Vt., by the notorious Beverly Robinson, 
for treasonable purposes. At that time it was known to the 
British that Congress refused to recognize Vermont's Inde- 
pendence or admittance to the Federal Union. Beverly 
Robinson's letter, therefore, proposed negotiations with the 



Ethan Allen and the Allen Family 375 

commander of the British army for the purchase of the 
"Green Mountain Republic." Ira Allen was sent to hold 
a conference with the Crown's officers, then encamped on 
lower Lake Champlain, and after seventeen days he won a 
verbal armistice. The British commander agreed upon the 
cessation of hostilities of his army of 10,000 troops within 
the borders of the Republic of Vermont. 

Ira Allen's military strategy, founded as it was upon 
treasonable grounds, therefore crippled the British army 
in the North and led to General Washington's victory 
over Cornwallis at Yorktown, Va., in the South, October 
19, 1 78 1, and the subsequent signing of the Treaty of Paris 
in September, 1783. 

After the close of the Revolutionary War, Col. Seth War- 
ner passed into a physical decline and returned to Irish 
Corners, now Riverside, in Bennington, and later removed 
to Woodbury, Conn., where he died on December 26, 1784. 
Warner's military skill ranks superior to that of Ethan Allen, 
although the latter, owing to that "original something," 
as Washington put it, won a more permanent place in the 
hearts of hero worshippers than any other Patriot during 
the Revolutionary period. The State of Connecticut 
erected near Col. Seth Warner's grave, an heroic monument 
twenty -one feet in height, with appropriate tablets, and 
Capt. John Chipman, the famous scout, wrote an account 
of his life. 

Little is recorded of Col. Samuel Herrick, commander 
of the regiment of Vermont Rangers. After the Revolution 
he moved from Bennington to Springfield, New York. 

Col. Ethan Allen's marriage to Mrs. Fanny Buchanan, a 
daughter of the noted Tory, Creon Brush of Westminster, 
took place on February 21,1 784. During the spring of 1 787 he 
located on the Cornelius Van Ness farm in Burlington, Vt. 
They had two sons, Ethan A. and Hannibal Allen, and one 



376 The Hoosac Valley 

daughter, Frances Allen. Colonel Allen, however, after 
visiting his cousin, Col. Ebenezer Allen on South Hero 
Island, in Lake Champlain, February 12, 1789, was stricken 
with apoplexy and died. The Hero of Ticonderoga was 
buried, February i8th, with military honors, by his vet- 
eran Green Mountain Boys, in Green Mount Cemetery. 

Ethan Allen's Burlington cottage is slightly altered to-day, 
and a boulder on his farm, near the spot where he died, bears 
a bronze tablet placed there by the Daughters of the Revo- 
lution. His sons, Ethan A. Allen and Hannibal Allen, 
subsequently became distinguished officers in the United 
States Army and resided in Norfolk County, Virginia until 
their death; and his daughter, Frances Allen, entered the 
Roman Catholic Convent, at Montreal, Canada. Her life 
and conversion are described by the Rev. M. Faillon in a 
book entitled. Vie de Mille Mance; also by A'Becet in the 
first volume of Appleton's Catholic Encyclopedia, issued in 
1907. She was the first American woman to take the 
veil. 

The late Ethan A. Allen, a great grandson of Col. Ethan 
Allen, was the author of Drama of the Revolutioji in blank 
verse. He died in 1909. 

Ira Allen, the youngest brother of Ethan Allen, did more 
to advance the civil government and settlement of the 
Green Mountain Republic for the fifteen years previous to 
the State's admittance to the Federal Union in 1791, than 
did any other man of the Revolutionary period. President 
Washington and Congressman William Smith on August 30, 
1790, visited Gov. Moses Robinson and Isaac Tichenor at 
Bennington Centre, in order to hasten Vermont's admit- j 
tance to the Union. At that time Washington was aware ' 
of the influence of Ethan and Ira Allen's diplomacy inj 
bringing about the cessation of hostilities of the British ' 
on the Vermont-Canadian borders. On January 6, 1791, 



Ethan Allen and the Allen Family 377 



--a«ir. 



following Washington's Bennington visit, the vote of 
Vermont's officers proved to be 105 yeas to 3 nays for a 
final application 
for the State's ad- 
mittance to the 
Union. Four days 
later, the Assem- 
bly met at Ben- 
nington Centre, 
and on January 
I 8th the Hon , 
Nathaniel C h i p- 
man and Lewis R. 
Morris, Esq., were 
appointed commis- 
sioners to negotiate 
with Congress for 
the admission of t he 
State to the Union. 
On February i8th, 
Congress passed 
an Act by which 
on March 4th, 
"the said State, 
by the name and 
style of the State 
of Vermont, shall 
be received into 
this Union as a new 
and entire member 
of the United States 




Ira Allen of Bennington and Burlington, Ver- 
mont, the famous Secretary of the Vermont Council 
of Safety during the Revolution before the Battle of 
Bennington. The leading Diplomatist of the Green 
Mountain Republic, Major-General of Vermont's 
Militia and Founder of the University of Vermont 
at Burlington. He died in Philadelphia, where he 
was buried in the Friends' Free Quaker Burial- 
ground, January 75, 18 14. His grave is unknown 
and unmarked. 



of America." 

During 1791, after Col. Ethan Allen's death, Ira Allen 
was chosen Major-General of Vermont's militia. On Octo- 



378 The Hoosac \'alley 

ber 19,1 793, he presented the land upon which the University 
of \'ennont now stands, in Bnrhngton, and endowed it with 
£4000. The building was occupied as a military' station 
during the War of 18 12. The comer-stone of the present 
building was laid by General La Fayette, in 1825. 

Governor Chittenden sent Maj.-Gen. Ira Allen to England 
in December, 1 793, to purchase State Arms. As Treasurer 
of \'ermont, Ira Allen mortgaged 45.000 acres of his estate 
in Champlain \'alley to Gen. WilHam Hull of Watertown, 
Mass., in order to loan the State the stmi to buy the necessary 
artillery-. The French Revolution was raging at the time 
he arrived in London, and it proved to be an inopportune 
time for Vermont's officials to negotiate for artiller\- or for 
Ira Allen's proposed scheme of building the Champlain and 
St. Lawrence Canal. In May, 1796, he \"isited Paris and 
purchased Si 20,000 worth of muskets, bayonets, and twenty- 
four cannon. This cargo was loaded on the ship, Olive 
Branch, from Ostend, bound for Xew York. 

Off the coast of Ireland . however, the Olive Bra nch was seized 
by a British cruiser. The ship was considered the lawful 
prize of the captors by the Court of Admiralty, although the 
cargo was proved to be neutral arms bound for a neutral 
port. Ira Allen, through his attorney. Lord Erskine, laid 
the case before the King's Bench. Three years later he was 
compelled to \'isit Paris to procure e\'idence. Through con- 
spiracy he was arrested for want of proper passport and 
lodged LQ a French prison for six months, where he became 
dangerously iU. He did not return to England imtil Octo- 
ber, 1800. In 1804, eight years after the seizure of Vermont's 
militar}- arms, Ira Allen won his case and recovered the 
then valueless cargo of the Olive Branch. 

Meanwhile, during those eight years. Ira Allen's vast 
estate in Vermont had been plundered and sold for taxes, 
and his good name defamed by those whom he had ser\-ed. 



Ethan Allen and the Allen Family 379 

Upon his return he was ejected from his home by the land- 
pirates and he fled to Philadelphia, Pa., where he died in the 
almshouse, January 15, 1 8 14, at the age of sixty-seven. 
Francis Olcott Allen discovered a certificate of the burial of 
Maj.-Gen. Ira Allen among the records of the Board of 
Health in Philadelphia a few years ago, proving that one 
of the greatest diplomatists of the Revolution was in- 
terred in the Free Quaker Burial-ground. His grave, how- 
ever, is unknown and unmarked to-day by appropriate 
monument. 

Ira Allen was the author, also, of State Papers, including 
Miscellaneous Remarks on the Proceedings of the State of New 
York against the State of Vermont. His Natural and Politi- 
cal History of the State of Vermont was published while he 
resided in London in 1798, He once said to the Green 
jMountain Boys: "As I view it, we are probationers to act 
not only for ourselves but for posterity, even as in some de- 
gree it was with Adam in his original purity. Each man is 
accountable to his Creator for the part he now takes, for 
on the conduct of the present age depends the liberties of 
millions yet unborn." 

The first heroic statue erected in the Green Alountain 
State was that of Ethan Allen, by the sculptor Kinney of 
Burlington, unveiled in the State Capitol at Montpelier in 
1852. In November, 1855, the Legislature passed an Act to 
erect a statue of Ethan Allen, to mark his tomb in Green 
Mount Cemetery, overlooking Winooski's Falls. The statue 
sculptured by the Boston sculptor, Stephenson, represents 
the hero in the act of demanding the surrender of Fort 
Ticonderoga. 

A monumental group of Ira AUen together with Dr. Jonas 
Fay and Dr. Thomas Young, the framers of Vermont's 
Declaration of Independence, together with statues of Ethan 
Allen, Seth Warner, Samuel Herrick, and Remember Baker 



380 The Hoosac Valley 

should be placed on the brow of Mount Anthony when it 
becomes a State Park Reservation. 

Their memory then should ever be 
Dear to our hearts as liberty; 
And while our country has a name 
Let us preserve our Allen's fame. 



CHAPTER XX 

FREE SCHOOL OF WILLIAMSTOWN AND WILLIAMS COLLEGE 

I785-I912 

It were as well to be educated in the shadow of a mountain as in more classical 
shades. Some will remember, no doubt, not only that they went to the college, but 
that they went to the mountain. — Thoreau, Week on the Concord and Merrimac 
Rivers. 

Free School of Williamstown, 1790 — Williams College, 1793 — Pres. Ebenezer 
Fitch, 1793-1815 — Amos Eaton, Henry Dwight Sedgwick, and Robert 
Sedgwick — Chester Dewey — Samuel J. Mills, Jr. — William Cullen 
Bryant — Pres. Zephaniah Swift Moore, 1815-1821 — Williams College 
Removal Case — Pres. Edward Dorr Griffin, 1821-1836 — Girls' Depart- 
ment — Mark Hopkins — David Dudley Field — -Albert Hopkins — Pres. 
Mark Hopkins, 1 836-1872 — Astronomical and Meteorological Observa- 
tories — Garden, Chip, Mountain, and Gravel Days — Natural History 
Expeditions — William Dwight Whitney — John Bascom— James Abram 
Garfield — Bryant and the Alumni Association, 1863 — ^Pres. Paul Ansel 
Chadbourne, 1872-1881 — Pres. Franklin Carter, 1881-1901 — Centennial 
of Williams College, 1893 — Pres. Henry Hopkins, 1902-1909 — Pres. Harry 
Augustus Garfield, 1909. 

THE white-steepled village of Williamstown was con- 
sidered "like a day-dream to look at" by Nathaniel 
Hawthorne in July, 1838, and he thought the students ought 
to be "day-dreamers," all of them. Thirty years later the 
Scotchman, President James McCosh of Princeton, thought 
of the classical hills of Williams, surrounded by imposing 
mountains, as a place at which the Last Judgment might be 
held, with the universe assembled on the encircling slopes. 

The early history of Williamstown turned predominantly 
upon a clause penned in Col. Ephraim Williams's Will ' at 

' Perry, Origins in Williamstown, pp. 479-483. 

381 



382 The Hoosac Valley 

Albany, July 22, 1755, for the founding of free schools in 
Williamstown and Adams to educate the children of the 
pioneer founders of English Hoosac towns. Thirty years 
later his executors, Col. Israel Williams of Hatfield and Col. 
John Worthington of Springfield, reported a fund of $9157 
to the General Court for founding the donor's Free Schools 
according to his Will and desires. 

A legislative act passed March 8, 1785, created a corpora- 
tion known as "The Trustees of the Donation of Ephraim 
Williams, Esq., for maintaining a Free School in Williams- 
town." Nine Trustees were appointed, including the Rev. 
Seth Swift, Judge David Noble, and Thompson Joseph 
Skinner of Williamstown; Esquire Israel Jones of Adams; 
the Rev, Daniel Collins of Lanesboro; Deacon William 
Williams of Dalton, son of Col. Israel Williams; the Rev. 
Woodbridge Little of Pittsfield; Judge Theodore Sedgwick 
of Sheffield and Judge John Bacon of Stockbridge, a former 
pastor of the Old South Church of Boston. Deacon William 
Williams was later chosen president and the Rev. Seth 
Swift, treasurer; Esquire Israel Jones and Thompson Joseph 
Skinner were appointed a committee of finances. 

A year later, the inhabitants of Adams presented a peti- 
tion to the Supreme Judicial Court, showing that Ephraim 
Williams's Will and desire "for the benefit of the East Town," 
now Adams and North Adams, had been set aside. That 
procedure delayed the building of the Free School of Wil- 
liamstown. On August 19, 1788, the Trustees met at land- 
lord Samuel Kellogg 's Mansion House in Williamstown and 
voted to build the Free School building of brick. The com- 
mittee received £500 of the bequest to begin levelling down 
the site of West College and to purchase the rights of Capt. 
Lemuel Stewart's spring beneath the Willows. 

A lottery ticket advertisement appeared in the Massachu- 
setts Sentinel of Boston on May 22, 1790, to raise money to 



Free School of Williamstown 383 

aid in completing the Free School. It proved only a method 
of taxation upon the Hoosac Valley folk and netted the 
Trustees about $3500. On May 26th, Col. Benjamin 
Simonds was invited to join the building committee, and 
a brick-kiln was opened at the northern base of Mansion 
House Hill. 

The dimensions of the Free School building were 82 x 42 
feet. It was four stories high, with a bevel roof surmounted 
with a tower. The walls were built very thick and the 
interior finished in solid white oak. The chapel occupied the 
second and third floors on the south end of the building; 
and the thirty- two dormitories, the front of the second and 
top floor. In 1793 Judge David Noble presented a bell for 
the tower which was to announce the time for prayer and for 
recitations. The belfry and dormitories were not changed 
when the building was remodelled in 1854. 

The Seal of the Free School was chosen after the completion 
of the building in October, 1 790, and consisted of the device 
of a tutor surrounded by three boy pupils and the legend : 
E. Liberalitate E. Williams Armigeri. A committee, 
including President WilHam Williams, the Rev. Seth Swift, 
and Judge John Bacon, was appointed to engage a tutor 
at £120 annually. Ebenezer Fitch of Yale, a gentleman 
thirty-five years of age, was engaged. He arrived at 
Williamstown in April, 1 791, and Judge David Noble 
presented an acre of land to the School Trustees, upon 
which Tutor Fitch's house was built. The site is now 
occupied by the Mark Hopkins Memorial Hall. 

The Free School was opened, October 20, 1791, and the 
first free class consisted of sixty pupils, recruited from the 
higher classes of the district schools of the town. The pay 
class under Tutor Fitch consisted of sixty young gentlemen, 
who paid an annual tuition fee of thirty-five shillings each. 

Tutor Fitch and Councillor Daniel Dewey on May 22, 



384 The Hoosac Valley 

1792, however, presented a petition to the Trustees, showing 
that WilHamstown was "pecuHarly favorable to a seminary 
of a more pubHc and important nature." They expressed 
a hope of "seeing Massachusetts the Athens of the United 
States of America, to which young gentlemen from all parts 
of the Union might resort for instruction in all branches of 
useful and polite literature." They further suggested that 
the Free School of Williamstown be incorporated as Williams 
Hall by the Commonwealth. 

A legislative act passed on August 6, 1793, changed the 
Free School corporation to that of ' ' The President and Trus- 
tees of Williams College,"' only thirteen months after the 
opening of the Free School of Williamstown. As additional 
Trustees to the original nine of the Free School were elected : 
President Ebenezer Fitch, the Rev, Stephen West of Stock- 
bridge, Col. Elijah Williams — half-brother of the founder 
Ephraim Williams, of Stockbridge — and Henry Van Schaick 
of Pittsfield. In 1794, were elected: the Rev. Job Swift of 
Bennington, John Bradstreet Schuyler — the son of Gen. 
Philip Schuyler of Schuylerville, N. Y., — Stephen Van 
Rensselaer of Rensselaerwyck — the son-in-law of Gen. Philip 
Schuyler — and the Rev. Ammi Ruhamah Robbins of Nor- 
folk, Conn.; making seventeen Williams College Trustees 
in all. John Bradstreet Schuyler died in August, 1795, and 
his name, therefore, was not printed in the General Catalogue. 

Williams College was first advertised in the Stockbridge 
newspaper and opened in October, 1793. Samuel Mackay 
from Chambly, Canada, — undoubtedly a descendant of the 
Williamstown proprietor, ^neas Mackay of lot 62 — was 
engaged as Professor of French. He induced several Cana- 
dians to attend Williams. The first class, that of 1795, 
included only four graduates from Stockbridge, and their 

' The College Seal consisted of a globe, a telescope, pile of books, sur- 
mounted by an inkstand and a twig of ivy or laurel. 






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385 



386 The Hoosac Valley 

commencement exercises were held in the First Church on 
the 2d of September. The Trustees pubhshed a catalogue 
containing the names of seventy students, forty of whom 
belonged to the Free Academy. This was the first college 
catalogue published in America. At the same time the 
Adelphic Union was founded, comprising the Philologian and 
Philotechnian Societies, for debate, oratory, and literature. 
The Adelphic Union has the distinction of being one of the 
oldest debating societies in this country. 

Meanwhile the attendance at the students' commence- 
ments had so increased that the dark old meeting-house was | 
no longer adequate and President Fitch on September 26, 
1796, prepared a paper and obtained sixty-five Williamstown 
names, together with twenty-four names of non-residents, who 
subscribed over $4500 toward building the Second Church ' on 
the Square. A legislative act passed on February 4, 1797, 
also appropriated $10,000 toward building East College, to 1 
accommodate the increasing numbers of students. The site 
was chosen. May 6, 1797, on Capt. Isaac Searles's lot, oppo- 
site the old lime-kiln, now the site of Griffin Hall. Skinner ; 
Brothers completed East College and the new church simul- 1 
taneously during the autumn of 1798. Business at that time ! 
centred about the Square, and Esquire William Starkweather 
was appointed first postmaster between January, 1798, and 
July, 1805. The first post-office occupied Starkweather's 
store west of Skinner's Mansion House. Ezekiel Bacon, 
a Yale graduate and son of Judge Bacon of Stockbridge, 
became second postmaster and held that office until 1807. 
His successor was Henry Clinton Brown, a Free School 
graduate and son of the famous Col. John Brown of Pitts- 
field. After the building of Green River Road by Keyes 
Danforth, Sr., in 1827 and Spring Street in 1848, business 
moved from the Square down to River and Spring streets, 

' See illustration, Chapter viii. 



Free School of VVilliamstown 387 

and the Third Congregational Church in 1864 was also 
erected on Main Street, opposite Spring Street. 

The Class of 1798 was the first to hold its commencement in 
the new Second Church on the Square. During the French 
Revolution, the religious and political attitude of some of the 
Trustees of Williams College and the Church was such as to 
injure the college town. The Federalists, including Presi- 
dent Ebenezer Fitch, the Rev. Seth Swift of the Second 
Church, Judge David Noble, Daniel Dewey, Gen. Samuel 
Sloan, Levi Smedley, Nehemiah Woodcock, Asa Burbank, 
and Dr. Remember Sheldon, held a neutral position. The 
Democrats included Gen. Thompson Joseph Skinner, Deacon 
Benjamin Skinner, Dr. William Towner, Dr. Samuel Porter, 
William Young, Absalom Blair and his son, William Blair, 
Samuel Kellogg, Keyes Danforth, and others, who, according 
to the French Directory, favored Privateering. This was in- 
jurious to American commerce. President John Adams was 
forced to organize a navy, and he levied an army under the 
command of Gen. George Washington. Williams students 
of the Class of 1798 volunteered their services to President 
Adams, but they were not called out for duty. 

One of the fifteen members of the Class of 1799 was 
Amos Eaton, the distinguished American botanist and geolo- 
gist, son of Capt. Abel Eaton of Chatham, N. Y., and the 
I maternal grandson of the soldier, Amos Hurd, who died in 
'. North Adams in 1 759. After graduation he studied law with 
. Alexander Hamilton in New York City and met the scien- 
[t tists. Dr. David Hosack and Samuel L. Mitchell. Later he 
' opened an office in the Catskills and during surveying expe- 
ditions began to study the flora and mineralogy of the region. 
\ He published his Elementary Treatise on American Bota?iy 
in 1810, and five years later began the study of botany and 
geology under Professors Silliman and Ives at Yale. During 
1 81 7, Prof. Chester Dewey of Williams, Class of 1806, 



388 The Hoosac Valley 

invited Amos Eaton to give a course of lectures to volunteer 
students at his Alma Mater. 

A letter' in the Archives of Williams, dated April 8, 1817, 
addressed to Amos Eaton, the author of Richards' s Botanical 
Dictionary, published by Webster and Skinner of Albany 
is signed by sixty-three students who attended those lec- 
tures, among the signatures being that of Dr. Ebenezer 
Emmons, founder of the Taconac System^ and author of 
Manual of Mirier alogy and Geology. A later edition of 
Eaton's Manual of Botany was dedicated to the president 
and professors of Williams College. He said: "The science 
of Botany is indebted to you for its first introduction into 
the interior of the United States ; and I am indebted to you 
for a passport into the scientific world." 

The science of geology in America is indebted to Amos 
Eaton and his pupil, Ebenezer Emmons, who began to study 
the rock formation of the Hoosacs' Lake District of Rens- 
selaer Plateau, west of the Taconacs, in 18 18. At the same 
time, Professors Sedgwick and Otley began to study the 
geology of the Lake District of Cumberland Hills, ^ in 
England. 

Gov. De Witt Clinton in 181 8 invited Amos Eaton to lec- 
ture before the members of the Albany Legislature. Later 
Eaton published his Index to Geology and was appointed to 
make a geological survey of the State of New York. In 
1824, he published the Natural History of New York, and in 
his Preface said: "We have at least five distinct and con- 
tinuous strata, neither of which can with propriety take any 
name hitherto given and defined in any European Treatise 
which has reached this country." 

Gen. Stephen Van Rensselaer, a Trustee of Williams Col- 

' Perry, Williamstown and Williams College, p. 289. 

" See Introductory, "The Hoosac Pass of the Taconac Mountains." 

3 Rawnsley's English Lakes, I., p. 123. 



Free School of Williamstown 389 

lege, later founded Rensselaer's School of Science at Troy, 
N. Y. He appointed Amos Eaton, senior professor until 
his death in 1842. The eighth edition of Eaton's North 
American Botany, published in 1840, contained 625 pages, 
describing 5267 species of plants. This manual was fol- 
lowed by Oakes's Flora of Vermont, published in Thompson's 
Vermojit History, in 1842. 

During President Fitch's term of office at Williams, two 
rebellions took place among the students and faculty, one 
in 1802, and another in 1808. These two outbreaks, 
together with the defalcation of the treasurer, Thompson 
Joseph Skinner, affected the history of Williams College 
and threw it into temporary decline. During this period, 
however, Samuel J. Mills, Jr., from Torrington, Conn., the 
"Father of American Foreign Missions," entered the Fresh- 
man Class, in April, 1806; and the future poet, William Cullen 
Bryant, from Cummington, Mass., entered the Sophomore 
Class, October 9, 1810. Bryant was established in room 11 
on the third floor, next to the northeast corner of West 
College, in company with John Avery from Conway, Mass., 
a student ten years his senior, studying for the Episcopal 
Ministry. The campus of Williams at that time consisted of 
the East College and West College buildings, connected by 
a straight avenue between Lombardy poplars. 

The poet, Bryant, said in his Autobiography, sixty-one 
years later, that he owed much to his room-mate's example 
. and counsels, during his seven months' course at Williams 
i' College. Avery was at that time a member of the Philo- 
technian Society of the Adelphic Union, and persuaded 
Bryant to join that society and encouraged his muse. The 
library of the Adelphic Union, containing over one hundred 
volumes, stood in an alcove of the hall outside Bryant's room. 
Among the recent works of that period were found Wash- 
ington Irving's Knickerbocker s History oj New York, pub- 



390 The Hoosac Valley 

lished in 1809, and Thomas Moore's Odes and Epistles, 
published in 1806, which included Anacreon's Odes and 
Moore's American poems and letters, written during his visit 
to the Hudson and St. Lawrence in 1804. 

Bryant mastered Latin prosody by himself at Williams 
and translated Anacreon's Ode to Spring, comparing it 
critically with Moore's translation. John Avery showed the 
literary critic of the Junior Class unsigned copies of both 
Bryant's and Moore's translations. The critic gave the 
preference to Bryant's translation, and spoke encouragingly 
of Moore's. This was flattering to the young poet, who said 
as a child that he used to pray that he might receive the 
gift of poetic genius, and write verses that might endure. 

Bryant recorded that it was the custom of the Sopho- 
mores, previous to 1809, to seize the Freshmen and compel 
them to go through a series of burlesque ceremonies, called 
"gamutizing." Several roguish fellows often kidnapped 
the stalwart student guarding the belfry on the third floor 
of West College, in order to delay recitations or prayers for 
belated students. It is locally reported that strayed calves 
from the lanes have been led up the stairs of West College 
and found bellowing from the front hall window in the morn- 
ing by their owners. It proved an easy task to "gamutize" 
a calf, but not an easy one to get the conceited animal down 
to earth after it had been an orator in the library of the 
Adelphic Union. 

Bryant's room-mate, John Avery, desired to complete 
his theological studies at Yale, and urged young Bryant to 
join him there. After seven months at Williams, Bryant 
thus asked honorable dismission on May 8, 181 1. His 
father, Dr. Peter Bryant, however, was unable to send his 
son to Yale or even let him return to Williams ; and the poet 
was forced to enter the law office of Sedgwick Brothers in 
New York City. Bryant later referred to the office work as 










■^H 






Co 



o 
Co 



to 

I 



C3 

o 
Co 



CO 






391 



392 The Hoosac Valley 

"drudging for the dregs of men," and "scrawling strange 
words with a barbarous pen," in the last stanza of his poem, 
Green River. 

Bryant wrote a satire in the spring of 1811, entitled De- 
scriptio Gulielmopolis, depicting the muddy walks of Will- 
iams's campus, and the frowning tutors guarding the dusty and 
cobwebby halls of learning. This was read before the Philo- 
technian Society in March, 18 12, by the poet's classmate, 
Charles Jenkins, who possessed a copy of the satire ; or later 
after young Jenkins was elected tutor at Williams, between 
1816 and 1819. His son, Dr. J. L. Jenkins, inherited the 
famous poem after his father's death in 1831. He subse- 
quently became an alumnus of Yale and published the poem. 
It was, after William Cullen Bryant's death, mentioned by 
George William Curtis in his Memorial Oration, before the 
New York Historical Society, December 20, 1878. It greatly 
interested the alumni of Williams and copies of it appear in 
Williams College history. ^ 

Ebenezer Fitch ^ resigned the Presidency of Williams, May 
2, 1 81 5. A committee of six of the College Trustees, includ- 
ing Theophilus Packard of Shelburne, Thaddeus Pomeroy of 
Stockbridge, Joseph Lyman of Northampton, Samuel Shep- 
herd of Lenox, Daniel Noble of Williamstown, and Joseph 
Woodbridge of Stockbridge, were appointed to consider the 
removal of Williams College to the Connecticut Valley, east 
of the barrier of the " Forbidden Hoosac Mountain." How- 
ever, it proved inexpedient to remove the college, owing to 
the forbidding attitude of the founders of the English Hoosac 
towns. Trustee Packard temporarily engaged Prof. Zepha- 
niah Swift Moore of Dartmouth College to accept the Presi- 
dency of Williams with a provisional promise of its final 
removal to Amherst. 

' Perry, Williamstown and Williams College, pp. 339-346. 

'No portrait of President Fitch exists in the Archives of Williams College. 



Free School of Williamstovvn 393 

President Moore' was a son of Lieut. Judah Moore, of 
Scotch-Irish Presbyterian origin, who in 1776 located with 
Colonel Thomson and the grandfathers of Elder Brigham 
Young, and the late Judge Levi Chandler Ball, in Wilming- 
ton, Vt., seventeen miles east of Bennington Centre. Young 
Moore attended Clio Hall at Bennington Centre in 1778 
under Tutor Eldad Dewey. He prepared for Dartmouth 
College and in 1793 graduated at the age of twenty-three- 
He married Phoebe Drury of Auburn, Mass., and became 
pastor of the Leicester Church and subsequently professor at 
Dartmouth, which office he held until elected President of 
Williams College in 1815. 

Trustee Packard of Shelbume later proposed the petition 
for the removal of Williams College to Amherst, and in 
November, 18 18, nine of the twelve Trustees consented to 
this. The three Trustees who voted against its removal 
from Hoosac Valley were David Noble of Williamstown, 
Israel Jones of Adams, and Levi Glezen of Stockbridge. 

President Moore and the other Trustees favoring the 
removal of the College met at a convention of the Hampshire 
County people at Northampton in August, 18 19; and the 
three opposing Trustees met with a large conclave of Berk- 
shire people at Pittsfield two months later. The Berkshire 
citizens determined that ''they knew not what would restore 
to the community that confidence that sweetens life and 
binds society together ; nor where would be found that balm 
which would heal the wounds," if Williams College should 
be removed from Williamstown. 

The Hampshire County folk and their Trustees subscribed 
$50,000 and presented their petition to the Legislature on 
January 17, 1820, for aid in the removal of the College. The 
Berkshire County citizens also held a convention at Williams- 
town, December 27, 18 19, and subscribed $17,000 payable 

'Tyler's History of Amherst College, 1873. 



394 The Hoosac Valley 

within ten years to the Legislature for the non-removal of 
Williams College to the Connecticut Valley. Trustees 
Noble, Jones, and Glezen prepared a petition, and engaged 
Judge Charles A. Dewey of Williamstown to draw up a 
legal remonstrance against the College's removal, which 
they presented, together with President Fitch's Report of 
the College, read before the Historical Society of Massachu- 
setts in 1802, to the Legislature, January 17, 1820. 

The Senate and House discussed two questions: "Was it 
legal?" and "Was it expedient to remove Williams College? " 
In the similar Dartmouth College Case of 18 19, Judge 
Nathaniel Niles of West Fairlee, Vt., was the principal 
Trustee for the corporation, and he engaged councillors 
Daniel Webster and William Wirt to defend the College. 
Chief Justice Marshall of the United States Court, therefore, 
sustained Webster's novel and much questioned plea: 
"That a gift to a charitable institution of learning is a 
'contract,' in the sense of the Constitution of the United 
States, between donor and trustees. To impair the obliga- 
tion of a contract by any law of any State is forbidden by 
the national Constitution." 

The final decision of the Dartmouth Case influenced the 
vote of the Massachusetts Senate on February 8, 1820, 
which was 31 to 5; and that of the House on February 14th 
following, which stood 120 to 25 against the removal of 
Williams College. The General Court's decision, rendered 
to President Moore and his nine Trustees of Williams was : 
"That it was neither lawful nor expedient to grant the 
prayer of the petitioners." 

President Moore's chief argument before the Legislature 
for the removal of Williams College was that Col. Ephraim 
Williams's Will and desire for the founding of the Free School 
of Williamstown had already been wilfully broken and set 
aside, in the first place by excluding girls in 1791, and in the 




395 



396 The Hoosac Valley 

second place by converting the Free School into Williams 
College in 1793. Josiah Quincy in his address before the 
Senate on February 8, 1820, said: 

The trustees came all the way to Boston to make a con- 
fession of a great crime. They tell us that so long ago as 
1793 they perverted the Free School Fund, which the donor 
designed for the use of the poor people of Williamstown (and 
Adams; for the education of the children of the inhabitants, 
including hoys and girls alike) to the use of their college, 
that it was a great violation of a sacred trust. . . . What 
can be the object of this extraordinary penitential confession? 
Do they want absolution? No. That is not what they 
want. ... In consideration of their confessing one crime, 
they ask your indulgence to be permitted to commit another. 
They tell you in so many words that we have now seven 
and twenty years been perverting to our own use and con- 
trary to the will of the donor one half of our present funds; 
in consideration of which we pray liberty to abscond with the 
residue ! 

The original manuscript copy of Quincy's Speech ' to the 
Senate was presented to President Mark Hopkins of Williams 
a year previous to Quincy's death in 1863, and is found in the 
College Archives to-day. 

In May, 1821, the Trustees of Amherst Charity Academy 
elected President Moore for their President and Professor of 
Theology and Moral Philosophy, at an annual salary of $1200, 
and he accepted the office in a letter dated at Williamstown in 
June of the same year. He announced his resignation of the 
Presidency of Williams to the eighty students assembled 
in the Chapel of West College, and half of them resolved to 
join him at Amherst or to take their degrees elsewhere. 

The Senior Class called a meeting and Emerson Davis 

' Perry, Williamstown and Williams College, p. 407. 



Free School of Williamstown 397 

and Erastus Benedict addressed the wavering students. 
Fifteen remained and took their degrees at WilHams in 
September, from the hands of the retired President Moore 
in the presence of the Rev, Edward Dorr Griffin, who was 
subsequently elected President of Williams. On September 
5, 1 82 1, the former graduates of Williams met in the Chapel 
of West College and organized the famous Alumni Society 
for the promotion of fellowship, literature, and interest in 
their Alma Mater which was the first society of college 
graduates in this country. In 1822 the Berkshire Medical 
Institute was founded at Pittsfield and its degrees were con- 
ferred with the academical degrees of Williams College. 

President Griffin was graduated at Yale in 1790 and in 
1 809 became Professor of Pulpit Eloquence at Andover Theo- 
logical Seminary, and subsequently pastor of the Congrega- 
tional Church of Newark, N. J. He was known as the 
"Prince of Preachers." He instructed the Senior Class at 
Williams and preached a third of the time at the Church 
of Christ on the Square. 

Soon after President Griffin's arrival at Williamstown in 
1 82 1, he addressed a letter to Miss Mary Lyon, of Ipswich 
School for Girls, who in 1830 founded Mount Holyoke School 
for Girls, requesting her to recommend one of her graduates 
to take charge of the Girls' Department of Williams College, 
about to be established, in order to fulfil the Will and desire of 
the founder. Miss Sarah Thayer received a letter of recom- 
mendation from Miss Lyon, accompanied with President 
Griffin's letter, both of which are found in the Archives of 
Old Deerfield to-day. Miss Thayer accepted the position. 
The house occupied by the Girls' Department stood west of 
the Square, near the junction of Main Street with Hemlock 
Glen Road, and the girls attended lectures with the boys 
at the College Chapel. Among the girl students remembered 
by this generation may be mentioned the venerable Miss 



398 The Hoosac Valley 

Tyler of Lanesboro, Miss Halstead of North Adams, and 
Miss Scott, a granddaughter of Phineas Scott of West 
Bennington. 

The Girls' Department of Williams, for want of students, 
was eventually abandoned, and Miss Thayer opened a Girls' 
School in the Congregational Church of North Adams, built 
in 1827, during the pastorship of Parson Long. She subse- 
quently married Truman Paul and became the mother of 
Jenny Paul-Goodrich, now the President of Fort Massachu- 
setts Historical Society, to whom the writer is indebted for 
these hitherto unpublished facts. 

The Class of 1824 at Williams met with a revival led by 
the student William Harvey, and Mark Hopkins was con- 
verted and joined Stockbridge Church in 1825. One of the 
members of the Class of 1825 was David Dudley Field, who 
together with Henry Dwight Sedgwick and Robert Sedg- 
wick of the Class of 1804, and Martin Ingram Townsend of | 
the Class of 1833 are among the most distinguished pioneer 
jurists of the United States. The Sedgwicks in 1822 pub- 
lished essays on the Evils and Absurdities of the Practice oj \ 
English Common Law in the United States. Two years } 
earlier however, Edward Livingston of Princeton, after Rob- ' 
ert Livingston's Louisiana Purchase from Emperor Napoleon ; 
of France, drew up the Civil Code of Louisiana which was 
adopted in 1823. 

Later the Sedgwicks adopted Livingston's Code of Louisi- 
ana as a model and revised the Code of New York, which was 
not completed until after their death by their partner, 
David Dudley Field. Stephen J. Field, a brother of David i 
Dudley Field of the Class of 1837, also became his partner!! 
in 1840, and ten years later moved to California and framed 
the Judiciary Act of that State. 

The Legislature of New York in 1857 began a law reform, 
and commissioned David Dudley Field to prepare a political, 



Free School of Williamstown 399 

penal, and civil code and procedures, embracing the whole 
body of the law. He became greatly honored in Europe 
and was recognized as the New England Gladstone. He 
lived to behold Parliament adopt the principles and forms of 
his Civil Code of New York in England's Supreme Court 
of Judicature Act, and was foremost in promoting a Code of 
International Law with European publicists. At a banquet 
of the Law Reform Society in London, Lord Brougham 
stated that Field's New York Code had been introduced in 
the most distant British colonies and that, an "American 
was giving law to Australia." 

In 1825, the Trustees of Williams resolved to raise $25,000 
to build Grifhn Chapel and found a Professorship of Mathe- 
matics and Natural Philosophy. Meanwhile Prof. Chester 
Dewey resigned the chair of Natural Science to take charge 
of the Pittsfield Gymnasium, a school for boys. He owned 
the largest herbarium of the genus of sedges in the world, 
and this he presented to Williams College before his death in 
1867. After Dewey's departure, Albert Hopkins was chosen 
for the Professorship of Natural Philosophy and Astronomy, 
which he filled until 1862, when he was elected Memorial 
Professor of Astronomy, an office founded by David Dudley 
Field, in which he continued until his death in 1872. 

The historic newspaper. The American Advocate, was 
founded and printed by Ridley Bannister at Williamstown in 
1827 in the Old Academy building on Spring Street. He was 
a kinsman of Homer and Addison Bannister of Pownal, Vt. 
His paper advocated the Democratic policy against the Fed- 
eralists during the period when Henry Clay was a candidate 
for Presidency of the United States against John Quincy 
Adams. Clay was supported by Henry Shaw, the father of 
the humourist, "Josh Billings" of Lanesboro, and several 
Benningtonians. There are seventy-six numbers of the 
paper preserved in Williams College Archives. A list of 



400 The Hoosac Valley 

plants and minerals collected by Dr. Ebenezer Emmons dur- 
ing his rides between Cheshire, Williamstown, and Pownal 
Bogs of Ashawagh, ' together with the religious essays of 
Prof, Albert Hopkins, signed "U, " also appeared in The 
Advocate. Mark Hopkins delivered his master's Oration on 
Mystery at Williams commencement in September, 1827, 
This famous oration was published in Silliman's American 
Journal of Science and Arts in April, 1828; his address before 
the Stockbridge Agricultural Society appeared in The 
American Advocate during October, 1827. The newspaper 
ceased publication in November, 1828. 

Col. Henry W. Dwight, Jr., of Stockbridge, a former Repre- 
sentative of the State of Massachusetts at Washington, 
championed Dr. IMark Hopkins and he obtained license to 
preach. After the death of Prof. William Porter of Williams 
in 1830, Dr. Mark Hopkins accepted the vacant chair of 
Moral Philosophy and Rhetoric. Three years later Presi- 
dent Griffin had a slight paralytic stroke. On June 15, 
1834, he organized the Williams College Church in Griffin 
Chapel. It proved his last official act previous to his resig- 
nation on September 28, 1836. The first three names on the 
College Church records included those of Mark Hopkins, 
Albert Hopkins, and Tutor Simeon H. Calhoun. 

Prof. Mark Hopkins, during President Griffin's decline, 
became instructor of the Senior Class of 1 834 and was elected 
President of Williams College in 1836. His Inaugural 
Address was entitled A Wise System of Educatio?i, He 
became the greatest educator in New England. 

Between 1834 and the semi-centennial in 1843 began the 
progressive period of Williams College. Prof. Albert Hop- 
kins sailed for Europe at his own expense in September, 1 834, 
to procure apparatus for his astronomical and meteorological 
observatories. After his return in November, 1836, he 

' See Note i at end of volume. 



Free School of Williamstown 



401 



repaired with a party of students wielding crow-bars to 
the quartzite ledges on Alberta's Mountain (East Range) 
and quarried the rock of which the ancient astronomical 
observatory was constructed. It was dedicated on June 12, 
1838. Albert Hopkins is justly known as the "Father of 




Hopkins's Astronomical Observatory, fomtded by Prof . Albert Hopkins, 1838, 
It is the first observatory of its kind erected in America. 

'American Astronomy," although a dozen years earlier, in 
1826, a small astronomical observatory was built by the 
University of North Carolina. 

Few of this generation know anything about the Garden, 
Chip, Mountain, and Gravel Days, connected with the gym- 
nastic exercises of Williams College students between 1793 
and 1872, now replaced by Lassell's Gymnasium and by 
exercises on Weston's Field. The pioneer students owned 

their own wood-piles, and became masters at kindling fires, 
26 



402 The Hoosac \ 'alley 

saw-buck philosophy, and drawing water up the shppery 
path from the CoUege Spring, unless wealthy enough to 
engage Bill Pratt to assume those duties for them. Half a 
cord of wood lasted a term, and two quarts of burning fluid 
proved sufticient for the midnight spirit-lamp for two 
weeks. 

The Class of 1S50 was the first to construct a g^mmasium 
apparatus in the field southwest of West College. It con- 
sisted of one horizontal bar. a fixed sloping ladder for hand 
climbing, one sliding pole, and three swinging ropes. The 
apparatus was destroyed by some malicious person one night 
and all except one strand cut in the ropes, injuring all bej'ond 
repair. 

Garden Day was established by Prof. Albert Hopkins and 
Prof. Ebenezer Kellogg. The latter presented an acre of 
ground to the College in 1835 for a public garden, after which 
the first Horticultural Society for landscape gardening in this 
country was organized. In a subsequent day (^1877). Cyrus 
W. Field presented Si 0,000 to WiIliamsto^^^■l to beautify 
]\Iain Street by removing fences, laying out Field Park, and 
lighting the streets \\-ith gas. Water was conducted in pipes 
to the College domiitories from Cold Spring in Hemlock 
Glen in 1888. Chip Day was introductor}' for Garden Day, 
and occurred about the middle of May during the third term. 
The students raked up the chips and saw-dust about their 
wood-piles and prepared the campus for the simimer months. 

Mountain Day came on the second Monday of the third 
term, and several students climbed to Mount Greylock and 
remained overnight to behold the sunrise from Albert Hop- 
kins's Meteorological Observatory. Henry D. Thoreau \dsi- 
ted Mount Greylock during July. 1846. and, interested in the 
object of the tower, said that "it would be no small advan- 
tage if every college were thus located at the base of a moun- 
tain, as good at least as one well-endowed professorship. . . . 



Free School of Williamstovvn 403 

Every visit to its summit would, as it were, generalize the 
particular information gained below, and subject it to more 
catholic tests." 

The second Monday of the fall term was known as Gravel 
Day, and was observed by the students hauling gravel to 
spread over the paths of the campus. This custom passed 
away about 1850, when each student was assessed, and men 
were hired with teams to haul the gravel, while the students 
took a holiday, known as Mountain Day later, to some 
historic or natural history field in Hoosac Valley. 

The Natural History Society of Williams in 1835 organ- 
ized the first ecological expedition in this country, headed 
by Prof. Albert Hopkins, Dr. Ebenezer Emmons, Tutor 
Calhoun, seventeen students, and three townsmen. They 
set sail from Boston on the Yarmouth sloop Flight and visited 
St. Johns, New Brunswick, Halifax, and Windsor, Nova 
Scotia. Professor Hopkins wrote an account of the expedi- 
tion, which appeared, October, 1835, in The American Travel- 
ler, ' a paper published by a WilHams alumnus. 

The most distinguished visitor at Williams College com- 
mencement on August 15, 1838, was the noveHst, Nathaniel 
Hawthorne. In his American Note-Book he describes the 
yeoman's daughters' sunburnt necks and silk and cambric 
dresses; and the rough, brown-featured, school-master- 
looking, half-bumpkin, half-scholarly graduates, dressed in 
black, ill-cut broadcloth, and pumps. He considered their 
manners very bad, although he discovered gentlemanly fel- 
lows there, including his hero, Eustace Bright, who figured 
in Tanglewood Tales and Woftder Book. 

Hawthorne evidently enjoyed studying the crowd of 
fugitive slaves from White Oaks, dispensing ginger-bread, 
watermelon, and apple-toddy about the Square; while 
a Jewish auctioneer from New York with his heterogeneous 

'Perry, Williamstown and Williams College, pp. 566-570. 



404 The Hoosac Valley 

articles, and Sheriff Twining e^f Pittsfield with his pockets 
bulging with writs of ejectment were, to the novelist, a part 
of the commencement exercises that attracted him above 
President Mark Hopkins's address or the orations of the 
graduates. 

President Mark Hopkins's Baccalaureate orations were 
always considered profound, but the eloquence of his Address 
to the Alumni at the semi-centennial of the College, in 1843, 
surpassed them all. Of the Alumni he said : 

They have come from the yeomanry of the country, from 
the plough and the work-shop, with clear heads, and firm 
nerves, and industrious habits, and unperverted tastes— 
in need, it may be, of polish, but susceptible of the highest. 
. . . The progress of knowledge and improvement is like 
the gradual accumulation of a pile to which every scholar | 
ma}' be expected to add something, as every Indian is said 
to have laid a stone upon the pile at the foot of Monument 
Moimtain, but in other respects it is more like the progress 
of a fire which is set at certain points, and spreads on every 
side. Luther, and Bacon, and Newton, and Carey, and 
Samuel J. Mills, set fires, and he who does this to any extent 
does something for the race, even though that which kindled 
the blaze was but a spark, and was lost in the brightness 
and glow of the succeeding conflagration. . . . 

The teacher is to make nature the principle, and, as far 
as possible, is to let her do her own teaching, . . . Have 
the means and apparatus to do this fully, and your course 
loses the character of mere book-learning. The student is 
led to direct communion with nature, and with nature's 
God, and though you do not advance science immediatel>-. 
yet you kindle fires. You incorporate your course into the 
very being. You awake thoughts and feelings, "that shall 
perish never." 

IMark Hopkins's system of education was likened to that of 
Socrates; and he never realized himself that he practised a 



il 



Free School of Williamstown 405 

manner in teaching pursued by Plato, who labored to 
awaken the creative and reflective minds of his pupils, urg- 
ing them to arrive at definite conclusions of their own rather 
than to accept the definite conclusions of others. 

After thirty-six years of service. President Mark Hopkins 
resigned his office to Paul Ansel Chadbourne of the Class 
of 1848 on July 27, 1872. The ceremony of passing the keys 
of Williams College over to his pupil was most impressive. 
President Chadboume's inaugural oration was followed by 
Dr. John Bascom's welcoming address in behalf of the 
faculty; and by James Abram Garfield's address in behalf of 
the alumni. President Chadbourne resigned his office in 
June, 1 88 1, and accepted the Presidency of Amherst Agri- 
cultural College. 

Franklin Carter of the Class of 1862 succeeded to the 
Presidency of Williams in 1881 and held the office for twenty 
years, resigning in 1901. The late Henry Hopkins of the 
Class of 1858, son of Mark Hopkins, was chosen President 
of Williams in 1901. He resigned his office in 1908, and was 
succeeded by Harry Augustus Garfield, of the Class of 
1885, a son of James Abram Garfield of the Class of 1856. 

Gen. James Abram Garfield, in an address delivered at 
Washington, February, 1879, previous to his election as 
President of the United States said : ' ' Give me a simple cabin 
with a log inside, Mark Hopkins sitting upon one end of the 
log and myself upon the other, and that is College enough 
for me." A Boston jurist also said: "I have never yet met 
with a graduate of Williams College who did not bear in 
himself, in some measure, the impress of Mark Hopkins. 
Williams College and Mark Hopkins! How inseparably 
connected are those names!" 

Bryant's Class of 18 13 held its fiftieth reunion during the 
perilous autumn of 1863. The absent poet sent a poem which 
was read by Gen. Charles Frederick Sedgwick. He said: 



4o6 The Hoosac Valley 

Look back on fifty years. Large space are they 
Of man's brief life, those fifty years; they join 
Its ruddy morning to the paler light 
Of its declining hours. . . . 

The sapling tree 

Which then was planted stands a shaggy trunk, 
Moss-grown, the centre of a mighty shade. ^ 

At the meeting of the Alumni Association in 1869, William 
Cullen Bryant was chosen president. Mark Hopkins in his 
introduction said: "He is one having the wisdom of age in 
his youth and the vigour of youth in his old age." 

The Class of 1850 included the names of Dudley Field, 
William T. Booth, and William D. Porter. Dudley Field 
delivered the Philosophical Oration; his father, David Dud- 
ley Field, addressed the alumni; and his grandfather, the 
Rev. David Field of Stockbridge, offered the closing prayer. 
The loyalty of the sons of Williams is illustrated by their 
donations for erecting halls and fraternity buildings on the 
classical hills of Williamstown, including Morgan Hall, 
Hopkins Memorial Hall, Thompson Biological Laboratories, 
and the Thompson Memorial Chapel, the finest cathedral 
in Hoosac Valley, and a host of other buildings. 

Among the seven most eminent alumni of Williams during 
its first century, according to the late historian Arthur 
Latham Perry, may be included: 

I — Amos Eaton 1799 Naturalist and Promoter 

2 — William Cullen Bryant 18 13 Poet and Publicist 

3 — Mark Hopkins 1824 Teacher and Preacher 

4 — David Dudley Field 1825 Lawyer and Codifier 

5 — William Dwight Whitney 1845 Scholar and Lexicographer 

6— John Bascom 1849 Thinker and Orator 

7 — James Abram Garfield 1856 Worker and Winner 

' Perry, Williamstown and Williams College, pp. 348-9. 







407 



4o8 The Hoosac Valley 

Perry considered that William Dwight Whitney and 
John Bascom were the most scholarly men ever graduated 
at Williams College. To the above list might be added 
ten times seven other eminent names, which would certainly 
include those of Samuel J. Mills, Jr., the brothers, Henry 
Dwight and Robert Sedgwick, Chester Dewey, Ebenezer 
Emmons, Albert Hopkins, Martin I. Townsend, and Arthur 
Latham Perry, who have "set fires" in the minds of other 
generations than their own. 

The General Catalogue of Williams College between 1793 
and 1903 contains the names of 4685 graduates, and over 
445 non-graduates, who have received honorary degrees, 1 
including Edward Everett Hale, Joseph Hodge Choate, , 
Theodore Roosevelt, Elihu Root, and other famous men. 

The Centennial of Williams was celebrated, October 8, [ 
1893. Orations were delivered by the Alumni, Rev. Henry 
Hopkins, late President of Williams ; Charles Cuthbert Hall, j 
James Hulme Can field, and Granville Stanley Hall. The 
Rev. Washington Gladden read a poem on the founding of 
the College in 1793, in which he says: 

A hundred years their gifts have brought 
To crown the work that day begun; 

And flames off this altar caught 
Light every land beneath the sun. 



CHAPTER XXI 

SLAVERY AND THE BIRTHPLACE OF AMERICAN MISSIONS 

1 773-1906 

The Field is the World 

INSCRIPTION ON MISSION MONUMENT. 

Proto- Abolitionists — Fugitive Slaves — Separatism — Infidelism — Old Lights — • 
New Lights — Samuel J. Mills, Jr. — Haystack Prayer-meeting — Birth of 
American Foreign and Home Missions — Semi-Centennial of Foreign 
Missions, 1856 — Haystack Monument — Protestant and Roman Catholic 
Parishes — Civil War — Centennial of Foreign Missions, 1906. 

STRANGERS visiting Mission Park in Williamstown, 
Mass., are attracted by the odd "Haystack Monu- 
ment," which marks the birthplace of American Foreign 
Missions. The pedestal is surmounted by a huge marble 
world, on which are represented in outline the five continents. 
Yonder Dome and Old Greylock are not the Mounts of 
Lebanon, nor is the devious Hoosac the Orontes of ancient 
Antioch where the first band of Christians assembled. Yet 
"Haystack Monument" marks the modern Antioch of the 
New World, where Samuel J. Mills, Jr., and four Christian 
classmates of Williams, including Richards, Robbins, Loomis 
and Green in August, 1806, during a thunder-storm, offered 
prayers beneath a haystack, which occasion led to the 
organization of the Society of United Brethren, that first 
carried the story of Christ to the heathens of Asia and poor, 
degraded Africa. 

The cruelties of the slave trade led many students to pro- 
test against slavery. The Rev. Samuel Hopkins of Great 

409 



410 The Hoosac Valley 

Barrington Church of Old Berkshire proved the first prac- 
tical proto-abolitionist in America, preaching against the 
slave traders' cruelty from 1745 until his death. Harriet 
Beecher Stowe describes Parson Hopkins as the hero in her 
Minister's Wooing. He was a brother of Col. Mark Hop- 
kins, the grandfather of the late President Mark Hopkins of 
Williams College. The poet Whitter said of Samuel Hop- 
kins that he once owned a slave whom he sold, and devoted 
the proceeds of the sale to educate a Negro missionary. 
After his removal to Newport, R. I., in 1770, Parson Hopkins 
rose before his wealthy slave-holding congregation and in the 
name of the Highest demanded "the opening of the prison 
doors to them that were bound." 

During 1773, Samuel Hopkins and his neighbor. Rev. 
Ezra Stiles, organized the first missionary society in New 
England. They made appeals for money to educate Negro 
ministers to found Christian colonies in Africa, but the War 
of the American Revolution prevented the missionaries 
sailing for Africa. The following year, on June 3, I774i 
Nathaniel Niles, grandson of the Rev. Solomon Niles, the 
first minister of the Second Church of Brain tree, Mass., 
preached the first practical abolition sermon, entitled Civil 
Liberty, ' in the American colonies at the Old North Church 
in Newburyport, Mass. 

Samuel Hopkins, Ezra Stiles, and Nathaniel Niles were 
all friends of the Rev. Samuel J. Mills of Torrington Church, 
Conn., editor of the Evangelical Magazine, publishing the 
missionary news in the colonies. Mills's youngest son, 
Samuel, was born, April 21, 1783, and was familiar with the 
Connecticut missionary society's hope of founding missions 
in Asia and Africa, and as a child was consecrated by his 
parents as a foreign missionary. 

Foreign missions, both in England and New England, 
» Nathan N. Withington, "A Clergyman of Old," N. E. Mag,, February, 1905. 




Haystack Monument, Mission Park, Williamstown, Massachusetts. 



The Birthplace of American Foreign Missions — the New Afitioch, where 
Samuel J. Mills, Jr., and jour classmates of Williams College held a Prayer- 
meeting beneath a haystack during an August thunder-storm in iSo6, which re- 
sulted in the organization of both Foreign and Home Missions in A merica. 

411 



412 The Hoosac Valley 

were conceived in individual souls. William Corey, known 
as the "Father of British Foreign Missions," a cobbler and 
Baptist Elder of London in 1786 first advocated carrying 
Christianity to the heathens of Asia, but his plea for aid was 
frowned down. However, in 1793, he in company with 
missionary Thomas were sent to India and founded the first 
Baptist mission colony. John Corey of Fort Massachusetts 
and his kindred, Benedict and Paris Corey of Pownal pro- 
priety, were lineal descendants of Elder William Corey of 
London. 

The first chaplains of Fort Massachusetts, including the 
Rev. Thomas Strong and Rev. Stephen West, between 
1756 and 1758 were Yale graduates, as were the first 
ministers of Williamstown and Adams, and the subsequent 
Ebenezer Fitch, first President of Williams College. These 
divines all came under the instruction of the Rev. Naphtali 
Daggett, First Professor of Divinity, between 1755 and 
1777, and subsequently President of Yale College. He died 
in 1780 of wounds received in battle with the British at New 
Haven in 1777, and was succeeded by the learned Ezra 
Stiles. 

Home Missions in Hoosac Valley were first instituted 
between 1761 and 1763, when the Rev. Hugh Peters of the 
Separatists' Church travelled among the first 30,000 settlers, 
residing between Hoosac Tunnel Mountain and Canada. 
His kinsman. Gen. Absalom Peters of Wentworth, N. H., 
and his wife, who was a lineal descendant of John Rogers, 
the "Martyr of Catechism," became the parents of Absalom 
Peters, a subsequent pastor of the Old First Church of 
Bennington Centre, Vt. He was chosen Secretary of the 
Society of United Missions in 1825 and during 1837 was 
elected Secretary of the Board of American Home Missions, 
and is known to-day as the "Father of Home Missions." 
Parson Peters edited the Home Missionary and Pastor s Jour- 



Slavery and Birthplace of American Missions 413 

7ial, while at Bennington; and later became pastor of the 
First Church of Williamstown between 1844 and 1857, 
where he met many missionaries. 

During the English, American, and French Revolutions, 
a great deal was published relating to the Brownists' or 
Separatists' Systems of Luther, Calvin, Eliot, Robinson, 
Mather, Penn, Stoddard, Edwards, Sergeant, Brainard, 
Zinzendorf, Spencer, Francke, Hopkins, Whitefield, Wesley, 
Embury, Warren, Miller, Ann Lee, Brigham Young, and 
Bushnell. Henry Ward Beecher said that: "It was a bad 
generation of books!" Publications between the American 
and French Revolutions included either abnormally pious 
memoirs of missionaries or the outpourings of infidels. 
Among these were Jonathan Edwards's Divine Revelation, 
a contrast to Ethan Allen's Oracle of Reason, published at 
Bennington Centre, Vt., in 1782, followed by Thomas Paine's 
Age of Reason. The latter, written in a French prison in 
1793, greatly influenced the abolition of slavery in New 
England. 

The trial of Warren Hastings and the anti-slavery writings 
of Wilberforce roused New Englanders against the slave- 
trade. Slavery, however, was prohibited in Vermont's Con- 
stitution. On November 28, 1777, Capt. Ebenezer Allen of 
Tinmouth, a cousin of Ethan Allen, captured Diana Mattis 
and her infant, Nancy, with a few British soldiers on Lake 
Champlain. He gave her a certificate of emancipation, he 
being "conscientious that it was not right in the sight of 
God to keep slaves." This paper is found recorded in the 
County Clerk's Office at Bennington to-day. Three years 
later, the Rev. David Avery was installed pastor of the First 
Church of Bennington Centre, and insisted upon his right 
to retain a Negro woman as slave. Several of his parish- 
ioners refused Holy Communion from his hands, and he 
was forced to resign in May, 1783. Judge Theophilus Har- 



414 The Hoosac Valley 

rington made slavery impossible in the Green Mountains, 
when in 1803 he demanded a Shaftsbury slave-owner to 
produce a "Bill of Sale for his slaves from the Almighty 
God." 

During 1781, Brom and Bet, through alleged cruelty of 
the wealthy slave-trader. Col. John Ashley, son of Elder 
Jonathan Ashley of the First Church of Old Deerfield in 
Berkshire, ran away and refused to return to their master. 
Colonel Ashley engaged Judge David Noble of Williams- 
town, and Judge Canfield of Sharon, Conn., while Brom and 
Bet secured the volunteered councils of Judge Theodore 
Sedgwick of Stockbridge and Tapping Reeve of Litchfield 
Hill, Conn. The latter proved the first American jurist to 
arrange a Treatise on the Domestic Relation from England's 
Common Law, advocating women's rights. 

The case of Brom and Bet was decided in favor of Ashley 
by the Supreme Judicial Court, but the slaves never returned 
to their master, and Marm Bet remained the maid of Cath- 
erine Sedgwick until her death. In the subsequent case 
of Greenwood versus Curtiss in 1802, Judge Sedgwick advo- 
cated Lord Mansfield's plea in the Negro Sumerset, case: 
That by the law of Nature, which was the law of Massa- 
chusetts, one man cannot have a legitimate property in 
another, and that any contract involving such property 
was therefore void. Slavery was practically abolished in 
Massachusetts after the case of Brom and Bet, although it 
was not done away with in Dutch Hoosac, New York, until 
the Emancipation Act in 1827. At the opening of 1800, 
there were 34,000 slaves in New York State, selling at an 
average price of $325 each, and manorial " Nigger- whippers " 
were appointed until 1827. 

The slaves of the Dutch patroons of Hoosac and Rensselaer- 
wyck, between 1664 and 181 1, celebrated Pass and Pinxster 
Festivals. On Pinxster Day, Whitsun Monday in May, 



Slavery and Birthplace of American Missions 415 



began a week's holiday for the Negroes. They assembled 
on Pinxster Hill 
in Albany or 
in Troy, where 
they gathered 
Pinxster - fl o w - 
ers, {Azalea nu- 
diflor a ,) and 
paraded the vil- 
lage streets. 
The evenings 
were spent in 
feasting, danc- 
ing, and love- 
making. Old 
King Charlie 
from Columbia 
County and Un- 
cle Tom from 
Knickerbacker ' s 
Schaghticoke 
Manor o n the 
lower Hoosac, 
of charcoal 
blackness, were 
clad in g o 1 d - 
laced scarlet 
coat and yellow 
breeches, and 
amused the 
crowd with an- 
tics and songs. 
Owing to the 
Bacchanalian 




Uncle Ahe-the-Bunter, White Oaks Glen. 

A fugitive slave from a Virginian plantation, who 
resided with the Parsons family in White Creek and 
Dutch Hoosac, Neiv York, whence he escaped to White 
Oaks and built his cabin on an island in Broad Brook 
above the Sand Springs. He was known locally as 
Abraham Parsons. The designation of " Abe-the- 
Bunter " originated from a horny groivth on his occipi- 
tal skull. He won wagers with the College stude?its, 
breaking a grindstone disguised as a hard cheese in a 
bag, and bursting the head of an oak hogshead of mo- 
lasses. He married Elsie Orcombreight, a daughter of 
the Stockbridge Chieftain Orcombreight, and died at the 
Williamstown Poor-House in i8gg at an unknown age. 



4i6 The Hoosac Valley 

custom of Pinxster week, it was finally abolished by the 
Albany Council, April 28, 181 1. 

Between 1781 and 1827 several Negro slaves of Berkshire, 
Albany, Saratoga, and Dutch Hoosac fled to English Hoosac 
and settled on the banks of Broad Brook in White Oaks Glen, 
Williamstown. Among those fugitives may be mentioned 
Emerson Davis, Moses Todd, Samuel Porter, Ishmael Tite, 
Abraham Parsons, Blind Jake, Aunt Dinah Jackson-Jones, 
Polly Cato, Polly Martin, the Duncan, Lansing, Vincent, 
Curtiss, and Adams families. The Indian Holmes and his 
Negro wife, Phoebe, resided near Phoebe Brook, where Holmes 
was killed at the turkey shoot near the cider-still spring in 
Ford Glen. The chieftain Orcombreight, (All-come-bright), 
was descended from the royal Mahican King's family seated 
at Stockbridge. He married a yellow-haired Dutch-Negro 
half-breed, and they had two sons and two daughters: Dan, 
Franz, Elsie, and Sarah. The sons married white women 
and the daughters chose Abraham Parsons and George 
Adams, typical full-blood Negroes. Orcombreight died at 
Nathan Worthy's home, west of Williamstown, about 1870. 

Ishmael Tite and Abraham Parsons made their escape 
North from a Virginia plantation. The former worked on the 
Thomas Ayers farm in New Lebanon, N. Y., about 18 15, and 
the latter located in Hoosac, N. Y., with the Parsons family, 
and both subsequently settled in White Oaks. Abraham Par- 
sons was locally known to the Williams students as "Abe- 
the-Bunter," owing to a horny growth on his head, proving 
him equal to winning wagers at cracking grindstones for 
hard cheeses. 

The Rev. Samuel Hopkins and the Rev. Stephen West, 
both pupils of Jonathan Edwards and graduates of Yale, 
published a system known as Hopkinsianism in 1793, dif- 
fering in many ways from Edwards's system of Divine 
Revelation; while Thomas Paine's Age of Reason was pub- 



Slavery and Birthplace of American Missions 417 

lished in England the same year, and influenced the Hoosac- 
tonians greatly. The Senior Class at Williams in 1796, 
after reading Paine's Age of Reason, disputed the necessity 
of immediate manumission of slaves, and settled the question 







Making white oak baskets at the George Adams cabin, on ivest bank of 
Broad Brook in White Oaks Glen, opposite the Chapel. Elsie Orcombreight- 
Parsons, widow of Uncle-Abe-Parsons, stands on the left, and her sister, Sarah 
Or combreight- Adams, wife of George Adams, sits on the right. 

affirmatively. Jedidiah Bushnell of the Class of 1797 said 
that the students sufTered about as much in morals as in 
the theory of religion ; a part of them being settled infidels 
advocating Volney philosophy. 

Hopkinsianism was replaced at Williams by the reading of 
Doddridge's Lectures in 1797, since Hopkins's system was 
believed to be simply a revision of Edwards's Divme Reve- 
lation, which had called forth universal controversy among 
27 



4iS The Hoosiic Valley 

Separate churches. Whittier in his Essay, described Hop- 
kinsianism as "a system which reduced the doctrines of the 
Reformation to an ingenious and scholastic form, and had 
the merit of bringing those doctrines to the test of reason 
and philosophy." It proved the "ultra-reaffirmation o( 
Calvinism against a growing Amiinianism" and resulted in 
Unitarianism after the disestablishment of Congregation- 
alism, in 1834. 

A great awakening spread among the New England 
churches in 1734. The "Old Lights" followed Edwards's 
system and the "New Lights," or Strict Separates, adopted 
Whitefield's system of revivals. The Sunderland Church 
of Massachusetts on March 3, 1749, considered it unlawful 
and dangerous for members of the "Old Lights" to worshij^ 
at the meetings of the Separates, who were excommunicated 
for renouncing communion of Christ's visible church. 

As a result, in 1754, the elders and deacons of forty Sepa- 
rate Churches, including eight from Massachusetts, twent}-- 
four from Connecticut, seven from Rhode Island, and one 
from Long Island met at Stonington, Conn., to consider 
Separatism or Strict Congregationalism. Among those 
present of the Westfield Church of Massachusetts may be 
mentioned the Rev. Jedidiah Dewey, and Deacons Samuel 
Robinson and John Montague of Hardwick and Sunderland 
churches, Mass. ; Alexander Miller, Paul Park, Father Mar- 
shall, and Father Palmer of Plainfield, Preston, Canterbur}', 
and Windsor Separate Churches of Connecticut, besides 
possible representatives of the Warren Society, Hopkinton 
Society, and Wesleyan-Embury or Methodist Episcopal 
Society, and of the Quaker, Shaking Quaker, and Mormon 
societies. 

The great revival of Strict Congregationalism took place 
in Litclifield and Berkshire counties between 1798 and 1799. 
At that time there was but a single professor of religion 



Slavery and Birthplace of American Missions 419 

among the students at Williams and this remained the con- 
dition until four converted Freshmen arrived in 1801. A 
revival took place at the First Church of Williamstown in 
1805 and the Rev. Seth Swift added over a hundred members 
to his records before his death in February, 1807. 

The First Church of Bennington was without a pastor at 
the time of the murder of the Indian, Stephen Gordon, by 
George Tibbett and George Whitney, which occurred on 
Saturday, August 8, 1802. A great revival took place in 
1803, when "the degeneracy, depravity, infidelity, and 
heaven-daring wickedness" of the settlers of Hoosac and 
Walloomsac valleys was a subject of lamentation to mission- 
ary Read of Chelsea, Mass. 

Mills's "Haystack Prayer-Meeting" would not have been 
heard of except for the cruelties of slavery and infidelism 
among the mocking Sophomores and Seniors at Williams. 
The fearless Juniors, Algernon Sidney Bailey and John 
Nelson, were driven to Mehitable Bard well's home in 1805, 
opposite Simonds's River Bend Tavern, to hold prayers, 
and they paved the way for the advent of Samuel J. Mills, 
Jr., who was converted while at Morris Academy, Conn., in 
1802, at the age of nineteen, and came to Williams in April, 
1806, to prepare for the foreign missionary field. A revival 
took possession of the Junior Class later, and Mills, in com- 
pany with James Richards, Francis L. Robbins, Harvey 
Loomis, and Bryam Green, organized the first Saturday 
afternoon prayer-meeting. During August prayers were held 
in Sloan's Maple Grove, north of West College, or southwest 
beneath the Willows. 

Bryam Green, half a century later, said that: "The rooms 
occupied by Mills and Loomis, Bartlett, and myself . . . 
the heat of the day . . . the shower that drove us from the 
grove to the haystack; the small number who attended the 
meeting — there being no one present from East College . . . 



420 The Hoosac Valley 

walking together from the stack to West College, are all 
circumstances which appear fresh and plain to my mind." 
The most significant feature of that first haystack meeting 
proved to be Mills's prayer, to carry the Gospel among the 
pagans of Asia, followed by his declaration that: "We can 
do it if we will," 

The Saturday prayer-meetings continued in Sloan's Grove 
until late October and were often attended by other students, 
including John Nelson, Calvin Bushnell, Rufus Pomeroy, 
Samuel Ware, Edwin Dwight, Ezra Fisk, Luther Rice, and 
John Whittlesey. The three sons of Peter Schuyler Putnam, 
grandsons of Gen. Israel Putnam, were also members of 
Mills's Class of 1809, but there is no record that they were 
among the praying Juniors. 

On September 7, 1808, the Sol Orions Society was organized 
in the northwest room on the first floor of East College. 
Later, James Richards and Ezra Fisk drew up a constitution 
and rechristened the society, Unitas Fratum — United Breth- 
ren. This was signed by Mills, Richards, Fisk, John Seward, 
and Luther Rice. The object of the United Brethren was 
to secure through the persons of its members missions to 
the heathen. Mills and several others of his class in 1809, 
after their graduation, spent several months at Yale, Mid- 
dlebury, Dartmouth, and Union colleges, promoting interest 
in Foreign Missions. Mills, on entering Andover Seminary 
in 1 8 10, found Richards, Robbins, Hall, and other Williams 
students there, besides Adoniram Judson from Brown, 
Samuel Nott from Union, and Samuel Newell from Harvard, 
all of whom joined the Society of United Brethren later. 

The United Brethren met with the Andover Fathers, Dr. 
Samuel Spring and Dr. Samuel Worcester, at Professor 
Stuart's home. A petition was prepared, signed by Mills, 
Judson, Nott, and Newell, and later presented before the 
General Association of Massachusetts at Bradford on June 



Slavery and Birthplace of American Missions 421 

27, 1 810. This led to the organization of the Board of Com- 
missioners of Foreign Missions, consisting of five members 
from Massachusetts and four from Connecticut. 

The timely mission legacy of Mary Norris, widow of the 
Andover Professor Norris, enabled the first five missionaries 
ordained at Salem Tabernacle in the autumn of 1 8 1 1 , includ- 
ing Hall, Judson, Nott, Newell, and Rice, to set sail on the 
barge Caravan, February 19, 1812, for Calcutta, Bombay. 
Mills withdrew his name in order that his friend Gordon 
Hall might precede him to foreign fields. The Andover 
Fathers also needed Mills to promote home missions and 
organize Bible Societies. 

The Massachusetts and Connecticut missionary societies 
in 1 8 12 engaged Mills and the Rev. J. T. Schemerhorn to 
travel through the Southwestern United States and found 
missionary societies. In July, 18 14, Mills and the Rev. 
Daniel Smith were engaged to make a second tour between 
Lake Erie and the Gulf of Mexico. They arrived at New 
Orleans, just after the defeat of the British by General 
Jackson. In March, 1815, Mills reported that there were 
80,000 families destitute of Bibles in the region, and that 
there was not a single Bible to be found for sale in New 
Orleans. 

Rev. Samuel J. Mills, Jr., was ordained, June 21, 1815, at 
Newburyport, Mass. During the following two years he 
resided chiefly in Albany, Philadelphia, and Washington 
organizing Bible Societies. He founded the American Bible 
Society in New York City, May 8, 18 16, which was followed 
by the building of the Bible House on the comer of Fourth 
Avenue and 8th Street. At the same time he started the 
first movement which lead to the organization of New York 
City missions, and founded the foreign mission school at 
Cornwall, Conn. While Mills resided with the Rev. Edward 
Dorr Griffin, Pastor of Newark Congregational Church of 



422 The Hoosac Valley 

New Jersey, he promoted the United Mission Society, and the 
Rev. Absalom Peters of Bennington Centre Church, Vt., was 
later elected first secretary in 1825, The United Missions 
are now merged in the American Board of Home Missions, 
supported by Congregationalists. Mills also organized the 
Parsippary School for training Negro missionaries, near 
Newark, N. J., under the synod of New York and New 
Jersey. 

His last great work was that of the American Colonization 
Society, aided by Dr. Finley at Washington, D. C, on Jan- 
uary I, 181 7. Samuel J. Mills, Jr., and Prof. Ebenezer 
Burgess of the University of Vermont were chosen to explore 
the coast of Africa and establish a colony. Upon setting 
sail for England, November 16, 181 7, Mills said: "We go to 
make freemen of slaves. . . . We go to lay the foundation 
of a free and independent empire on the coast of poor 
degraded Africa." 

After a conference with the London Colonization Society, 
founded in 1792, Mills and Burgess set sail, February 2, 1818, 
and arrived at the Sierra Leone Colony, March 12th, That 
settlement consisted of a thousand Negro slaves, who had 
been given their freedom and transported from Nova Scotia 
to Africa. The American Colony was located under the 
Liberian Government, and Mills and Burgess received a 
slave-chain taken from the neck of a captive as a token of 
gratitude from the Government. They set sail on the frigate 
Success for New York, May 22, 1818. Mills, however, took 
cold and died, June i6th. He was buried at sea, and thus 
closed his brief yet heroic religious career. Professor Bur- 
gess said of him: "He was no bigot. He silently communed 
with the Baptist, prayed with the Methodist, loved the 
Moravian, and praised the Friend." 

Of the five Juniors of the first "haystack prayer-meeting" 
of August, 1806, Harvey Loomis championed Home Missions. 



Slavery and Birthplace of American Missions 423 

He founded the First Church of Bangor in the Maine Woods, 
during 1 82 1 . James Richards proved to be the only member 
to become a foreign missionary. He set sail for Ceylon in 
October, 181 5, where he died seven years later. Among the 
first five missionaries, Hall, Judson, Nott, Newell, and Rice, 
who set sail for Calcutta in 18 12, Adoniram Judson and Rice 
became Baptists, and joined the Serampore Baptist Colony, 
founded by Corey and Thomas of London. Newell, Nott, 
and Hall remained Congregationalists and succeeded in 
founding missions at Ceylon, Bombay, and Hawaii. Judson 
died in April, 1850, at sea, where he was buried. He was the 
most successful of the pioneer missionaries, and his youngest 
son, the Rev. Edward Judson of the Judson Memorial 
Baptist Church of New York, is among the successful 
missionaries of Greater New York to-day. 

During 18 15, the foreign missionary societies of Europe 
and America united and established an institute at Basel, 
Switzerland, for the education of missionaries. In 1900, 
381 missionaries and 1190 native teachers had been trained 
at Basel. The British Bible Society was organized in 1804; 
and the Netherland, Scottish, Berlin, and American Societies 
organized later, distributed Bibles printed in 427 different 
dialects among the missionaries and native teachers. 

Williams College as the Alma Mater of Samuel J. Mills, Jr., 
"Father of American Foreign Missions," was "surrounded 
with peculiar consecration" to the Rev. Edward Dorr 
Griffin in 1821, when he accepted the Presidency of the 
College. Dr. Cox said in the Evangelist Magazine, August 
14, 1856, that Mills and his labors was President Griffin's 
theme in private and public. At Andover Seminary, Mills's 
name became one of religious power. Thirty-nine of the 
seventy-one members of the Society of United Brethren in 
1837 had given their services either to home or foreign 
mission fields. 



424 The Hoosac Valley 

During October, 1825, seventy-five of the eighty-five stu- 
dents at Williams believed themselves Christians. Prof. 
Albert Hopkins records later that an influx of impiety fol- 
lowed, induced through the arrival of several men of corrupt 
principles and dissolute life, spoiled before coming. They 
were fitted only to taint and corrupt the moral atmosphere 
of the college, and the Bible was stolen from the desk and 
worse than burnt. 

The Anti-Slavery Society and Temperance Society were 
both organized at Williams during 1827. An ode, To the 
Liberated Slave, ' written by one of the students, appeared in 
The American Advocate, July 4, 1827. Between 1826 and 
1828, William Lloyd Garrison published The Free Press of 
Newbury port, Mass., and The Journal of the Times at Ben- 
nington, Vt., advocating abolition of slavery. 

Home missions in English Hoosac began in 1829, when 
Prof. Albert Hopkins and Tutor Simeon Calhoun held 
prayer-meetings in the district schoolhouses of White Oaks, 
and among the fugitive slaves who had intermarried with 
the degenerated settlers of the region. During 1832, the 
Rev. Mr. Beman lead a revival in Williamstown and aroused 
the students to a higher religious plane. Professor Hopkins 
later organized the Noon Prayer- Meeting, of which Dr. 
John Bascom said that it was the most firm, persistent, and 
steadily influential means of religious life that he had ever 
had occasion to observe. Similar services were subsequently 
adopted in other colleges throughout the world. 

The site of Mills's " haystack prayer-meeting " meanwhile 
had been lost sight of. On April 26, 1852, Prof. Albert 
Hopkins received a letter from a Baptist layman visiting 
South Williamstown. He enclosed a gold dollar toward 
marking the site with a cedar stake. During the spring of 
1855, the venerable Bryam Green, the only surviving mem- 

' Perry, Williamstown and Williams College, pp. 484-5. 



Slavery and Birthplace of American Missions 425 

ber of the original five haystack students, arrived in Wil- 
liamstown and marked the site of the historic haystack with 
a stake, in company with Albert Hopkins and Arthur 
Latham Perry. The Williams Alumni Society purchased 
the Whitman farm, including Sloan's Maple Grove. Ten 
acres surrounding the site of the haystack was set apart as 
Mills's Park and beautified by Prof, Albert Hopkins, and the 
student members of the Landscape Garden Association. 

A real haystack was restored to the site of Mills's prayer- 
meeting at the semi-centennial in 1856. Dr. Cox said: 
The celebration presented a melange of jubilation, so vari- 
ous, so spicy, so rich, so complete, so augmenting in its 
current to the close, that old men said with wonder and 
delight: "We never saw the like!" David Dudley Field 
rendered the opening address which was followed by Prof. 
Albert Hopkins's oration on the Birth of American and Home 
Missions. Gov. George N. Briggs of Massachusetts offered 
a short address. His address was followed by the reading 
of a report of Secretary Rufus Anderson, ^ of the American 
Board of Foreign Missions. Anderson said : 

We are met in the New World. The historical events we 
commemorate occurred within the memory of some of us. 
Nevertheless, they are important, and have and will have 
a place on the historic page. And they make this, rather 
than any and all other places, the Antioch of the Western 
hemisphere. . . . Here the Holy Ghost made the visible 
separations of men in this country for foreign work whereto 
he had called them. 

The odd Haystack Monument was erected in 1867. It 
was a gift of Senator Harvey Rice of Cleveland, O., a member 
of Mark Hopkins Class of 1824. He was bom in Conway, 
Mass., and became the "Father of Public School System of 

' Perry, Williamstown and Williams College, pp. 369-70. 



426 The Hoosac Valley 

Ohio." At the dedication of the monument, President 
Hopkins said : ' ' For once in the history of the world a prayer- 
meeting is commemorated by a monument. . . . Not only 
was a prayer-meeting the birthplace but the cradle of 
foreign missions, and the hands that rocked that cradle ruled 
the world." 

Owing to the bigotry of the Protestant English Con- 
gregational and Dutch Reformed churches of Hoosac Valley, 
much prejudice prevailed against the bigotry of the Irish 
and French Roman Catholic missions. Father McGilligan 
of Albany Roman Catholic parish was the first to visit 
Hoosac Valley in 1818. The parish in 1839, under the Rev. 
Father J. B. Daly, consisted of western Massachusetts, 
New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York, north to the 
Hudson-Champlain divide. 

The first mass of the Roman Catholic Church celebrated 
in Hoosac Valley took place at Bennington about 1830. 
Old St. Francis De Sales Irish Church was dedicated in 1854, 
and the present St. Francis De Sales Cathedral was opened 
in 1889. The French Roman Catholic Chapel of the Sacred 
Heart of Jesus was organized in 1880. 

On the lower and in central Hoosac, mass was celebrated 
at Hoosac Falls in 1834, followed by the dedication of St. 
Mary's Church in 1851. The Augustian Fathers built the 
present church in 1871, with a branch mission chapel at 
Buskirk Bridge. Mass was celebrated at Schaghticoke in 
1835 and St. John's Catholic Church was dedicated in 
1 842 with missions in Valley Falls and Johnson ville of Pitts- 
town. St. Patrick's Church was founded in Old Cambridge 
in 1839. 

Mass was celebrated on the upper Hoosac in the Union 
above North Adams during 1847, and St. Francis Irish 
Catholic Church was dedicated in 1869, with branch mission 
chapels in Adams, Williamstown, and Greylock. The 



Slavery and Birthplace of American Missions 427 

French Catholic Cathedral, Notre Dame, was organized in 
1 87 1 and dedicated in 1888, with branch mission chapels in 
Adams and Williamstown. St. Stanislaus Kodska's Polish 
Catholic Church was recently organized at Adams and the 
Russian Jewish Synagogue at North Adams in 1892, with 
branches of the latter at Hoosac Falls and Bennington. 
To-day the mingling chimes of the progressive creeds of 
Christendom are heard echoing Peace and Good Will through 
the Valley of Mingling Waters. 

Christ's Church at White Oaks is connected with Wil- 
liams College home missions. It was founded by Prof. 
Albert Hopkins, February 5, 1865, and dedicated, October 
25, 1866. The beautifying of the grounds about White 
Oaks Chapel, together with the care of Mission Park fell 
to Dr. John Bascom after the death of Albert Hopkins. 
The Williams College Cemetery in Mission Park contains 
the tombs and memorial monuments of several presidents, 
including Edward Dorr Griffin, Paul Ansel Chadbourne, 
Mark Hopkins, and Henry Hopkins; besides several pro- 
fessors: Albert Hopkins, Sanborn Tenny, Arthur Latham 
Perry, Cyrus Dodd, Luther Dana Woodbridge, and others. 
The grave of Edward Payson Hopkins, the only child of 
Prof. Albert Hopkins, who fell during the Battle of Ashland, 
Virginia, while serving under General Sheridan, lies near 
his parents. Dr. John Bascom says of Albert Hopkins: 
"Wherever else the Alumni of Williams College may wander 
for great men, their eyes will turn lovingly to him as their 
type of Christian Manhood." 

The greatest event between the semi-centennial in 1856 
and the centennial of foreign missions in 1906 was the Civil 
War. The first company to answer President Lincoln's 
call for 75,000 volunteers on April 14, 1861 proved to be one 
composed of 780 Green Mountain Boys under Col. John 
W. Phelps and Lieut.-Col. Peter T. Washburn. They 



428 The Hoosac Valley 

arrived at Fortress Monroe, Va., May 13th, followed by- 
five other volunteer Vermont regiments on May nth. These 
regiments figured in the battles of Big Bethel, June loth, 
and Bull Run, July 21st. Gen, George J. Stannard of the 
2d Vermont Brigade repulsed one of the severest charges in 
the Battle of Gettysburg. A monument of Vermont granite 
now marks the site of Stannard's Victory. The 17th Ver- 
mont Regiment during the Carnage of the Wilderness also 
faced a bloody battle each day until the Fall of Richmond, 
April 3, 1865, and the final surrender of General Lee to 
General Grant at Appomattox Court House, April 9th, 
following. Historian Benedict' asserts that: "The bril- 
liancy and service rendered by the Green Mountain Boys is 
denied by no student of history." Impartial judges admit 
it to be remarkable that troops of one State, constituting 
but an eighteenth part of the Northern Army, should have 
had a leading part in all the decisive battles of the Civil War. 

At the Centennial of American Foreign Missions, cele- 
brated in October, 1906, the Rev. John Hopkins Denison 
said: "There is sweeping over the world to-day a great wave 
of international justice. No longer is the slave trade per- 
mitted to be carried on unmolested in any part of the world." 

A century and a half has passed since the burning of the 
St. Francis Indian town by Col. Robert Rogers in Canada 
during 1759. The Mahican and Mohawk warriors of the East 
are now merged with the Sioux Nation, comprising 30,000 
Indians. Their annual convocations are headed by native 
priests of the Romanist, Episcopal, Congregational, and 
Presbyterian missions, followed by 16,000 Christian Sioux, 
scattered over a territory of six hundred miles in extent. 

To-day the royal Mahican warriors of Stockbridge live 
in Wisconsin; the Hoosacs. including the Schaghticokes 
and St. Francis kindred, are in Nebraska and the Dakotas 

' Vermont in the Civil War. 








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430 The Hoosac Valley 

mingling with their old Mingo enemies of the Huron-Mohawk 
Confederacy. Over 13,000 are attracted by the shinmg 
images and ritual of the Romanist and Episcopal missions, 
while 3000 are members of the Congregational and Presby- 
terian missions. Each squaw of the latter churches donates 
her annual dollar from her moccasin work, and requests that 
part be spent for the education of the "long-haired heathen " 
of China. 

According to statistics, in 1871 there were 237,000 Indians 
in America; in 1890 there were 175,000; and in 1905 they 
had decreased to 150,000, although to-day there is a steady 
increase of the vanishing race on their reservations. 

At the Centennial celebration of the Birth of American 
Foreign Missions, the Rev. Newell Dwight Hillis said: 

It is not merely an American event, but meetings com- 
memorative of the Birth of Missions are being held in 
the great cities all over the world. . . . Great events, have 
taken place in the political life in every country within the 
century. . . . Not less than 50,000,000 souls have been lifted 
from slavery and serfdom. One of the sublimest movements 
in the world rose in Williamstown, on the Hoosac in 1806, 
celebrated to-day on five continents. 

The Rev. Edward Judson, the youngest son of the mission- 
ary Adoniram Judson stated that: "A nation shall be con- 
verted in a day" when the Empire of China accepts 
Christianity. A century of missions ' becomes a vast subject 

' The Rev. J. S. Dennis in a Centennial Survey of Foreign Missions, published 
in 1900, included both Romanist and Protestant societies and reported as 
follows: "American Continent 128; Great Britain and Ireland 154; Denmark 
4; Finland 2; France 6; Germany 24; Holland 22; Norway 10; Sweden 10; 
Switzerland 4; Asia 117; Australasia and Oceania 35; Africa 42; making a total 
of 558 mission societies, represented by 15,000 missionaries and 77,000 native 
teachers. In 1900, the adherents of the Protestant missions in America, 
including Greenland and West Indies, was 1,115,000; Asia, inclusive of Japan 



Slavery and Birthplace of American Missions 431 

when traced to Mills's Haystack Prayer-meeting. Around 
the hallowed haystack shrine have assembled missionaries 
bearing the cross of all nations, to offer praise for the birth 
of foreign missions. 

A shout of joy from the redeemed is sent; 

Ten thousand hamlets swell the hymn of thanks; 

A glory clothes the land from sea to sea, 

For the great world and all its coasts are free.^ 

and Malaysia, 1,700,000; Africa, including Madagascar, 1,000,000; Australasia 
and Oceania, 300,000. Among the total 4,115,000 adherents were recorded 
1,318,000 communicants." 

' Bryant, Death of Slavery, 1866. 



CHAPTER XXII 

INDUSTRIAL INDEPENDENCE DURING STAGE-COACH DAYS 

I 774-1 874 

Nor will had news, revolutions, and anarchy be able to obliterate that love of 
prosperity and that spirit of enterprise which seem to be the distinctive character- 
istics of the American race. — De Tocqueville, Union Americaine. 

President Washington's Horseback Ride to Bennington — Steamboat Navi- 
gation — Stone Post Road and First Stage-Coaches — Industrial Inde- 
pendence — Federal Constitution — Flax, Cotton, Woollen, Iron, and 
Mechanical Industries — Passing of Stage-Coach and Mountain Inns. 

THE mode of travel through Hoosac Valley during the 
good old manorial days was on horseback or springless 
wagon and ox-sled. The roads led over the rough hills and 
were blocked in the lowlands by gates placed at intervals, 
until long after the opening of the Stone Post Road between 
Albany and Bennington in 1791. 

President George Washington and Congressman William 
Smith, on August 30, 1790, mounted on horseback, rode 
from New Lebanon Springs, N. Y., to Bennington Centre to 
consult with Gov. Moses Robinson about Vermont's final 
admittance to the Federal Union. They breakfasted at 
Gen. Samuel Sloan's Tavern in South Williamstown, Mass., 
and as they rode over Stone Hill, they beheld a picturesque 
view of the tower of the Free School of Williamstown in the 
distance. Congressman Smith in a letter published a cen- 
tury later in the New York Evening Post described their 
romantic ride beneath the "Weeping Rocks," overhanging 
the Hoosac River in the Pownal intervale of Vermont. As 

432 



Industries during Stage-Coach Days 433 

they ascended the Hill Road to Pownal Centre, they were 
enchanted with the scene of the rich lowlands below them in 
the Hoosac Pass of the Taconacs. Dr. John Bascom of 




The Weeping Rock Road along the ancient Hoosac and Mohawk War -Trail 
in Pownal Pass, near Lovatfs Burial-ground. 

Williams College considers the scene the most beautiful in 
New England to-day. 

The President's party was welcomed at Councillor Isaac 

Tichenor's mansion at Bennington Centre on Mount 

Anthony Road, west of the Walloomsac Inn, and their host 

i later conducted them to Governor Robinson's home. Con- 

1 gressman Smith considered Bennington Centre a very pretty 

village, located at the foot of a high hill in the shape of a 

cone. The hill referred to is Mount Anthony, still covered 

with maple trees, and he was charmed with the aspect of 

the fertile Walloomsac meadowlands. 

28 



434 The Hoosac Valley 

On September 7th, the Presidential party left New Leba- 
non Springs in a springless wagon, bound for Albany by 
way of Kinderhook Road, through Lake Queechy's sandy 
country, made famous by Susan Warner's Qiieechy; and on 
Thursday, September 9th, set sail on an Albany sloop for 
New York, although, owing to contrary winds and tides, 
they did not reach that City until six days later. 

Steamboats were perfected by slow process after John 
Fitch's invention, exhibited at Philadelphia in 1787. James 
Rumsey's model was exhibited the same year on the Potomac 
River; and Samuel Morey of Fairlee, Vt., successfully opera- 
ted his boat on the Connecticut and on Morey Lake in 1795. 
Robert Fulton and Robert Livingston were in Europe study- 
ing steam navigation in 1795. They later studied Morey's 
steamboat model, and in 1807, Fulton built and successfully 
operated the Clermont, the first steamboat on the Hudson. 

The Stone Post Road between Albany and Bennington 
Centre over the Pittstown Hills was formally opened, March 
25, 1791, on the thirtieth anniversary of the settlement of 
Bennington. This line proved to be the first stretch of 
m.acadamized road built in this country, and was followed 
by several companies, which organized to construct turn- 
pikes and toll-bridges in all directions from Albany. 

The Albany and Northampton Turnpike, leading east- 
ward over Cherry Plains of Rensselaerwyck through Berlin 
Pass to Williamstown, thence over the Hoosac Mountain 
to the Connecticut Valley, was completed in November, 
1793. During 1798, the rattling U. S. Mail wagon and tin 
horn delivery began regular trips through Williamstown. 
During January, 1799, the Great Western Turnpike Com- 
pany was incorporated and empowered to build stone roads 
from Albany up the Hudson and Mohawk valleys to Schuy- 
lerville, Whitehall, and Schenectady. In 1820, Congress 
authorized the passenger stage-coach to convey the U. S. 



Industries during Stage-Coach Days 435 

Mail between Albany, Bennington, Williamstown, and 
Boston, 

Inventive geniuses set to work about 1768 to turn out 
machinery to manufacture linen, woollen goods, and imple- 
ments for agriculture in the Colonies. During July, 1774, 




The Old Stofie Post Road east of White House Bridge near Hoosac Four Corners, 
New York. This stretch of road is mentioned in Owen Wister's famous 

tale of "The Virginians." 

Dr. Jacob Meack, Robert Hawkins, and Elisha Baker of 
Williamstown were chosen delegates to attend the Berkshire 
County Congress at Old Stockbridge to consider the indus- 
trial independence of British manufactures. 

Rev. Dr. Nathaniel Niles of Connecticut during 1775 
invented machinery for the manufacture of wire from bar 
iron by water power. Wire was used to make wool-cards 
and was one of the forbidden articles of manufacture in the 



436 The Hoosac Valley 

American Colonies. The Hartford Legislature, however, 
voted young Niles, a loan of £ioo for a term of years 
without interest, and encouraged his manufactures until 
1785, after which he located on his West Fairlee farm in 
Vermont. 

Patroon Philip Schuyler in 1 768 opened a line of transpor- 
tation between Schuylerville Mills and Albany. He engaged 
several hundred men the year round at mills, on boats, and 
Fish Creek weirs. Myriads of herring swarmed up to Lake 
Saratoga in the spring, and shad and sturgeon were abundant 
in the Hudson. The Hoosac farmers made annual excur- 
sions to Fish Creek and with the aid of scoop-nets literally 
loaded their wagons with enough herring to salt down a 
year's supply. 

Every farmer up to the opening of the War of 18 12 also 
sowed a small flax-field a few rods square and produced his 
household linen. The flax was allowed to rot slightly in the 
field, after which it was prepared by a hand-break, or swingle- 
knife, for the hetchel. This rough machine separated the 
tow from the fine flax, the latter being wound on a distaff 
and spun into threads on the little wheel, and the former was 
spun into warp and tow on the large wheel used for men's 
clothing and sacking for grain. 

Philip Schuyler engaged several Scotch-Irish artisans from 
Glasgow, Londonderry, and Dublin in his famous linen-mill 
at Schuylerville, and described the mechanical arts of the 
machinery employed, in a paper read before the Society for 
the Promotion of Arts in America. According to Lossing's 
Life of Philip Schuyler, he was awarded a medal and a vote 
of thanks for executing so useful a design in the Province. 
After the Declaration of Independence of the United States, 
July 4, 1776, premiums were offered for the best woollen 
cloth manufactured in this country. The first prize of $40 
was won by Scott Woodward of Old Cambridge, N. Y. ; 



Industries during Stage-Coach Days 437 

and the second prize of $35 was awarded to Adam Cleveland 
of Salem, N. Y. 

After the close of the Revolution in 1783, five mill-centres 
rose about the sites of the old forts in Hoosac Valley: at 
Hart's Falls in Schaghticoke ; at Pumpkin Hook in Cam- 
bridge; at Falls Quequick, now Hoosac Falls, N. Y.; at 
Bennington on the upper Walloomsac in Vermont ; at North 
Adams and Adams on the upper Hoosac in Massachusetts. 

Several proprietors of the upper Hoosac and Walloomsac 
towns pushed down the Valley to Hoosac, Cambridge, 
Schaghticoke, Mechanicsville, Lansingburgh, and Cohoes 
mill-centres. Jethro Wood, son of the New Bedford Quaker, 
Isaac Wood of White Creek, patented the first iron mould- 
board plough in this country, which was later manufactured 
by his kinsman, Walter Abbott Wood, at Hoosac Falls, The 
McNamaras' shop, known as March's factory on the Upper 
Falls of the Walloomsac, turned out scythes and grain-cradles, 
until the time when Walter Abbott Wood manufactured 
mowing and reaping machines, after which the scythe mill 
was converted into Orr's wall-paper mill. 

In Old Cambridge, at an early day, John Rhodes opened 
the first clothing-mill; Stephen Kellogg ran a fiax-mill; 
Leonard Darby, a gun-shop; Glass, a clock and comb fac- 
tory; John Allen, a hat factory; Sylvanus Tabor, a mitten 
factory; Paul Cornell, George Mann, Noah and Robert 
Wilcox all operated trip-hammers and turned out scythes 
and agricultural implements; Edward Hurd manufactured 
axes; Aaron Vail ran a rope factory; Garner Wilkinson 
turned out scythe-snaths and handles; and Edward Aiken 
later opened a wagon and coach factory. 

At the opening of 1800 an extensive wheat and flax 
industry was carried on in Cambridge by Frank Crocker. 
He also opened a distillery for the manufacture of brandy 
at Pumpkin Hook, and Jacob and Benjamin Merritt became 



438 The Hoosac Valley 

the leading merchants near the Forks of White Creek Road. 
Their annual trade in wheat, hauled to Troy warehouses, 
netted them $50,000. Palmer and Shrive ran a flax-mill 
near St. Croix Bridge, and other mills were built in Nepimore 
and Mapleton hamlets, and in the Hoosac and Little Hoosac 
passes of Pownal, Petersburgh, and Berlin. 

The Tomhannac and Owl Kill intervales of Pittstown and 
Cambridge, owing to the olive shale soil, produced a rich 
yield of flax, rye, and flower seeds. In an analysis of the 
Pittstown clay soil is found an excess of potash mica. Rye 
and flax straw contains about 22y-oV % potash. The 
natural affinity of the soil provided flax enough to keep 
seventeen flax-mills busy until the introduction of the cotton 
industry in 1810, and the region is famous for its rye flelds, 
flower seed, and gladiolus bulb culture to-day. The flne 
grade of red, brown, yellow, and purple ochres of the olive 
shale region of Hoosac Lake District, led to the founding of 
the Grafton paint and putty mills about half a century ago. 

The vegetable and flower-seed culture of Old Cambridge 
N. Y., was founded between 1816 and 1836 by Simeon 
Crosby and Sons, who in 1844 sold their interest to R. Niles 
Rice and Son, now one of the largest business enterprises 
in the Owl Kill Valley. The famous gladiolus fields of 
Meadowvale Farm in Berlin, N. Y., on the upper Little 
Hoosac were established by Arthur Cowee about fifteen 
years ago. To-day over 15,000 varieties of this twentieth- 
century flower are displayed in Cowee 's hundred-acre fields, 
which are considered the finest in the world. 

The Hart's Falls mill-centre in Schaghticoke, N. Y., was 
founded before the opening of 1800 by the miller. Hart, near 
the "Big-Eddy." The Boston capitalists, Benjamin and 
Charles Joy, opened a linen-duck mill, wool-carding and 
clothing manufactory on the north bank of the "Big-Eddy" 
of the Hoosac in 1800. Four years later, they advertised 




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440 



The Hoosac Valley 



a machine for picking, greasing, and carding wool at eight 
cents a pound. The Lewis Pickett paper-mill subsequently 
occupied the site of Joy's mills. On the south bank of the 
"Big-Eddy," below the present highway bridge, George 
Brown and his son-in-law, Giles Slocum, built a stone 
machine-shop sometime previous to 1800, 

The first four cotton-mills operated in this country were 




The Seed Works of Cambridge, New York, Owl Kill Valley, owned by Jerome 

B. Rice Seed Company. 



built in Hoosac Valley before the War of 18 12. During 
18 10, Brown and Slocum converted their stone machine- 
shop at Schaghticoke into Congdon's cotton-mill. The 
ruined walls of the cotton-mill were blasted away during the 
construction of the present dam above the "Big-Eddy" on 
the Hoosac in 1908. 

Gordon's cotton-mill on the Upper Falls of the Walloom- 
sac was built a few months after Congdon's cotton-mill, 
his machinery being made by Leonard Darby in his gun- ( 
shop at Pumpkin Hook in White Creek, N. Y. The "Old 



Industries during Stage-Coach Days 441 

Brick Cotton-Mill" in North Adams, Mass., and the "Old 
Doty Cotton-Mill" in North Bennington, Vt., were built in 
181 1. The Lowell cotton-mill in Massachusetts was the 
fifth in this country. The machinery was made by the 
machinist, Talbot, who learned his trade at Leonard Darby's 
Pumpkin Hook gun-shop in White Creek, N. Y. Talbot 
later became Lieutenant-Governor of Massachusetts. 

At Hart's Falls in Schaghticoke, N. Y., in 1816, Waddell 
and Shepherd built their large cotton-mill on the south bank 
of the "Big-Eddy"; and about the same time Rensselaer's 
woollen- and cotton-mills were erected on the north bank of 
the "Big-Eddy" below the site of the present cable-mill. 
They burned in 1836, In Old Cambridge, N. Y., the miller, 
Aiken, converted his frame grist-mill into the Washington 
County cotton-mill for the manufacture of sheeting; Gor- 
don's cotton- and woollen-mills on the Upper Falls of the 
Walloomsac were converted about 1869 into Stephen and 
Thompson wall-paper factory. On the Lower Falls of the 
Walloomsac McNamara operated the woollen and flannel- 
mills, subsequently known as Bumham's "Empire Shawl- 
Mills." Spaulding, during the Civil War, turned out 
uniforms for the Union soldiers, and later the plant became 
Carpenter's woollen-mill. It burned in 1876. 

The historic St. Croix flouring-mill, of Dutch Hoosac, 
built by the Tory, Van Schaick, in 1776, was owned by John 
Burck in 1876. It burned, October 24, 1896, and the ancient 
mill-stone, grinding wheat and com in August, 1777, still 
lies in ruins in the cellar of the present Dublin mill on its 
site. 

The finest mill-power in New England is found on the 
upper Hoosac and Walloomsac. The Ashawaghsac ^ — South 
Branch of the Hoosac — rises on Allen Brook in southern 
Lanesboro, Mass., originally known as Richfield in 1742; set- 

'See Note i, at end of volume. 



442 The Hoosac Valley 

tied by Englishmen from Framingham, Eng. ; and later known 
as Framingham — the stranger's home — until incorporated 
Lanesboro in Governor Bernard's honor to the wife of the 
Earl of Lanesborough, in 1760. The town is famous for 
its glass-sand, for the Berkshire Glass Works founded in 
1853, and for "Constitution Hill" — the home of plain 
Jonathan Smith, whose convincing speech brought about 
the adoption of the Federal Constitution at the Massachu- 
setts Convention in 1788, The town is also the birthplace 
of Henry Shaw, the philosophical humorist, "Josh Billings," 
whose grave is marked in the village cemetery. Dalton, 
the neighboring town, is famous for its century-old paper- 
mills. All the paper used to-day in the production of 
United States currency is manufactured in that town. 

Cheshire, lying between Lanesboro and Adams, was 
settled by Warwickshire men from England in 1 766, includ- 
ing John Tibbits from Warwick, R. I., father of Senator 
George Tibbits of Hoosac, N. Y., the promoter of the famous 
Erie Canal and Hoosac Tunnel Railroad. Most of the 
Providence, Warwick, and Kingston Quakers from Rhode 
Island who settled in Lanesboro and Cheshire, later pushed 
on to Adams, Williamstown, Hoosac, Cambridge, and 
Schaghticoke. Cheshire in 1801 produced 200,000 pounds 
of cheese and became famous for the manufacture of the 
"Big Cheese " shipped to President Thomas Jefferson by the 
Federalists. The town is also noted for its glass-sand, lime- 
kilns, and iron-ore. 

The North Adams mill-centre began in 1793 when Capt. 
Jeremiah Colgrove of Providence, R. L, built a grist-mill 
and saw-mill on the site of Ephraim Williams's mills, above 
the junction of the Ashawaghsac with the Mayoonsac. ' At 
that time Captain Colgrove prophesied that "Slab City" — • 
now North Adams would become the metropolis of the 

' See Note i, at end of volume. 



Industries during Stage-Coach Days 443 

Hoosac Valley. The following year the blacksmith, Joseph 
Darby, from Salisbury, Conn., opened a shop two rods below 
the Notch Brook Bridge in Braytonville. He introduced 
the first trip-hammer in English Hoosac, and hauled his 
wrought iron from Connecticut until iron-ore was mined at 
the foot of Old Greylock and smelted at Beckley's furnace 
on Furnace Hill. Darby did a thriving business, manufac- 
turing axes, saws, scythes, hoes, steel-yards, cow-bells, and 
sheep-bells for migrating settlers passing over Raven Rock 
Road through the Hoosac Pass to Lake Champlain and 
thence to Ohio Valley. Captain Colgrove during 1795 
opened the second blacksmith shop in the town near his 
Ashawaghsac Mills. 

During 1792, David Estes, another machinist from Rhode 
Island, purchased mill-lot 25, the site of the Mayoonsac saw- 
mill of 1756, for $150. He hauled his wrought iron and 
tools in a one-horse wagon and manufactured nails. He 
held a large sale of shingle nails at seventeen cents a pound 
between North Adams, Greenfield, and Brattleboro. 

Captain Colgrove and his brother-in-law, Elisha Brown, 
in 1 80 1 introduced machinery for carding wool, cloth-fulling, 
and dressing in their two-storied grist-mill, now the site of 
the Phoenix Grist-Mill. At the same time David Estes 
built a wool-carding and cloth-dressing mill on his lot and 
established competition with Colgrove and Brown. Roger 
Wing was among the first cloth-dressers engaged in the town 
and subsequently opened a clothing store in the Old Black 
Tavern block. The cloth-dressing business began at the 
same time in central Hoosac. The machinist, Seth Parsons 
of Falls Quequick, now Hoosac Falls, invented a shearing- 
machine which accomplished the work of ten men. He sold 
it for $30 and Colgrove and Brown introduced it in their 
North Adams mill. 

The manufacture of linseed-oil from flax-seed was begun 



444 The Hoosac Valley 

simultaneously at Falls Quequick, N. Y., by Jehiel Fox; at 
North Adams, Mass., by Colgrove and Brown; and at 
Bennington, Vt., by Olin and Calvin. The Bennington 
oil-mill was torn down in 1894 ^o make room for Rockwood's 
knitting-mill. The latter town was a famous market for all 
the flax-seed raised in Hoosac and Cambridge. The linseed- 
oil and oil-cake were hauled over the Green Mountains and 
thence shipped down the Connecticut to Boston and Hart- 
ford. Colgrove and Brown hauled their North Adams pro- 
ducts by four-horse teams to Troy, and it was shipped to 
Albany and New York. 

The historic "Brick Cotton Factory" of North Adams 
was built in 1 81 1 by the first corporation in Hoosac Valley, 
including Capt. Jeremiah Colgrove, Col. John Waterman 
from Williamstown, Benjamin Sibley, and others. It stood 
at the foot of Centre Street, on the west side of Marshall 
Street, and was burned in i860. Between 1790 and the 
opening of the Civil War in i860, the growth of cotton in 
the United States increased from 250,000 to 2,000,000,000 
pounds annually. Thousands of bales were shipped to 
the Troy warehouses and hauled by four-horse teams to 
Schaghticoke, Hoosac, Bennington, and North Adams. 
The pioneer cotton industry of Adams was established in 
1826 by Daniel Anthony, the father of the late Susan B. 
Anthony. His cotton-mill contained twenty-six looms, 
operated until his removal to Rochester, N. Y., about 1845. 

The iron furnaces of North Adams were among the pioneer 
works of the country, including Beckley's furnace on the 
east bank of Ashawaghsac, and another on Furnace Hill. 
Ore was mined at the foot of Greylock from which the plates 
of the original iron-clad Monitor were made. During 1 799, 
Dickinson and Brown operated an iron forge between Eagle 
Street Bridge and Union Bridge; and Otis Hodge later 
operated an iron furnace on the site of the Windsor Print 



Industries during Stage-Coach Days 445 

Works. Giles Tinker in 181 1 opened a machine-shop in the 
"Old Yellow Building," near Black Tavern. 

The pioneer machinists in this country include in their 
order the names of George Brown and Giles Slocum at Hart's 
Falls in Schaghticoke ; Stephen Kellogg and Leonard Darby 
at Pumpkin Hook in White Creek; Joseph Dorr, Seth Par- 
sons, Joseph Gordon, and Walter Abbott Wood at Hoosac 
Falls in Hoosac, N. Y. ; George Keith, Moses Sage, and Olin 
Scott at Bennington Vt. ; Joseph Darby, David Estes, Giles 
Tinker, and James Hunter, Sr., at North Adams, Mass. 
The Scotchman, Joseph Gordon from Glasgow, located on the 
lower Hoosac, and Giles Tinker on upper Hoosac, were the 
first artisans to introduce the mechanical arts of the power- 
loom for the manufacture of cloth in this country. The 
latter in March, 1822, made the first twenty power-looms for 
the manufacture of satinet at Blackington's mill, and the 
first twenty power-looms for printing wide print cloth at 
Bray ton's mill in North Adams in 1831. 

The iron works on the upper Walloomsac, the first in 
Vermont, were founded by Moses Sage, who resided at 
' ' Sage's City, ' ' now North Bennington, in 1 776. Sage's forges 
were located on Furnace Brook and ore was mined at the 
foot of Shaftsbury Mountain. That mine soon "petered 
out" and another was located in Captain Shields's District, 
east of Bennington, partly in Woodford. During President 
Thomas Jefferson's administration, several iron forges were 
built in Woodford Hollow for smelting bars of iron for the 
manufacture of gun-boat anchors for the United States 
Navy. Both Presidents Jefferson and Madison visited 
Governor Robinson at Bennington Centre during their 
terms of office. 

Moses Sage and his son-in-law, Giles Olin, sold their in- 
terest in their iron works to Thomas W. Trenor from Dublin, 
Ireland, who arrived in Bennington in 181 1. Moses Sage 



44^ The Hoosac Valley 

later moved to Pittsburgh, where he founded the first blast 
furnace in western Pennsylvania. The first iron forge in 
this country, and possibly in the world, for the manufacture 
of nails, was built in 1775 on Mill Street in Bennington by 
George Keith, who doubtless mined his own iron ore. Sev- 
eral of Keith's nails are still to be seen in the clap-boards 
on the colonial houses in the valley. 

The "Old Doty Cotton-Mill "of "Sage's City" occupied the 
site of the " E. Z." waist-mills at North Bennington. Deacon 
Stephen Hinsdill built a cotton-mill at Hinsdillville previous 
to 1835, and Truman Estes's "Old Stone Cotton Mill" of 
1840 is now occupied by Cushman's furniture factory. 

The Falls Quequick became a mill-centre in 1 784. Joseph 
Dorr leased 280 acres of the patroon, Bamardus Bratt, on 
the north bank of the Falls, and opened wool-carding, cloth- 
dressing, flax-mill, cider-distillery, and blacksmith-shop; 
and Calvin ran a grist-mill and Fox a linseed-oil mill. Joseph 
Gordon in 1820 manufactured cotton at Schaghticoke in a 
humble way and sold his goods from a wagon in the streets 
of Troy. He later built the four-storied Caledonia Cotton 
Factory of brick, on the south bank of Falls Quequick, and 
equipped it with one hundred and fifty-four looms, contain- 
ing seven thousand spindles. He employed fifty men and 
turned out 30,000 yards weekly. In 1826, he became a 
cripple through a fall, and was forced to sell his mill to the 
Crocker, Knickerbacker, House, and Merritt Corporation, 
which ran the business until 1868. 

The Tremont Cotton- Mill was founded eight years after 
Gordon's Caledonia Mill, on the north side of Falls Quequick 
by the capitalist, Benedict. He employed seventy hands 
and produced 25,000 yards weekly. The Tremont Mill 
was subsequently converted into Walter Abbott Wood's 
mowing and reaping machine-shops, which were destroyed 
by fire in i860. 




447 



44^ The Hoosac Valley 

Falls Quequick hamlet was incorporated by fifty voters 
as the village of Hoosac Falls in 1827. Gordon's Caledonia 
Mill became the centre of the village, which contained two 
miles of streets, lined by thirty-six dwellings and the popu- 
lation of which was two hundred inhabitants. The post- 
cf!ice occupied Postmaster Seth Parsons's machine-shop. 

The elaborate stage-coaches, drawn by six and eight 
spirited horses, between 1832 and 1874 made the journey 
from Boston to Albany over the Stone Post Road in forty- 
eight hours. Relays of horses were made along the line 
between Capt. Moses Rice's Charlemont Inn on Hoosac 
Mountain, Alphine Smith's North Adams House, Walloom- 
sac Inn at Bennington Centre, and Finney's Tavern on Pitts- 
town Plains, before pulling up at the Thorpe and Spraguc 
stage office, on the corner of Broadway and State Street in 
Albany. 

The Barnes stage office in Boston was located at the 
United States Tavern. Among the skilled drivers over the 
Hoosac Mountain may be mentioned "Jim" Stevens and 
"Al" Richardson, who became skilled in horsemanship 
during their novitiate in the White Mountains. According 
to the Rev. Washington Gladden in his history, From the \ 
Huh to the Hudson, 1872, "they made every horse do his 
part on the uphill stretches, coolly keeping them all in 
hand in the crooked descent, without swearing, shouting, or j 
whipping." I 

Nathaniel Hawthorne, in his American Note-hook during 
July, 1838, described a stage-coach ride from Pittsfield to 
the North Adams House. He observed the numerous fac- 
tories along the Ashawaghsac, and was not unheedful of 
the girls who turned their faces from their tasks, and of 
their rude boarding-houses, adorned with bean-vines climb- 
ing about the front door steps. 

The scene of Hawthorne's romance, Ethan Brand, was lo- 



Industries during Stage-Coach Days 449 

cated near Farnham's lime-kilns, at the base of Ragged 
Mountain, the footstool of the old chieftain Grey lock, a 
short distance south of the city of North Adams. He de- 
scribes the "snug and insulated" air of the " hollow vale, " 
which, viewed from certain points, it would seem difhcult 
to get out of without a climb over the mountain ridges. 
The old roads, however, wind away and accomplish the 
passage without ascending very high. Sometimes he heard 
the notes of a horn or bugle sounding afar among the passes 
of the mountains, announcing the coming of the stage-coach 
from Bennington, Greenfield, or Pittsfield. 

Like a faint far echo that responds unto its own, 
In a far off vale we hear the bugle moan ; 
And sweetly again comes back a dulcet tone. 

The echoing bugle-horn is now replaced by the discordant 
clanging of the gongs of the electric cars, as they pass through 
the narrow valleys of the Taconac Mountains. The hos- 
pitable welcome of the landlords at the mountain inns lost 
some of its warmth with the close of the stage-coach days, 
after the opening of Hoosac Tunnel Railroad. 

The EngHsh tourist, Daniel Pidgeon, in 1883, after a 
charming stage-coach ride of five miles from North Adams 
about the base of Old Greylock, arrived at WilHamstown, 
whose academical village lies buried among the Hoosac 
highlands. He said: "There was not a single manufac- 
tory and hardly a retail shop in the village, whose pretty 
bungalows rose from the elm-shaded stretches of turf. . . . 
Its romantic situation, park-enfolded homes and peaceful 
atmosphere places WilHamstown easily ahead of every other 
New England village for beauty." 



CHAPTER XXIII 

A CENTURY OF PROGRESS DURING THE HOOSAC TUNNEL ERA | j 

I81O-I9IO 

No one can look on the fearless energy, the sturdy determination, the aptitude 
for local self-government, the versatile alacrity, and the unresisting spirit of en- 
terprise which characterize the Anglo-Americans, without feeling that here he be- 
holds the true elements of progressive might. 

Creasy, In the Thirteenth Decisive Battle of the World. 

Erie and Hoosac Canals — First Railroads — Hoosac Tunnel — Manufactures — 
Inventions — Wilson's Sewing-Machine — Wood's Mowing- and Reapinj^- 
Machines — Westinghouse's Air-Breaks — Electric Motors — Church Spins 
— School Towers — Factory Chimneys — Balloons — Gladiolus Fields. 

AFTER the opening of the first iron and cotton industries 
in the Hoosac Valley, capitalists began to consider 
means of obtaining lines of transportation by canal over or 
a railroad tunnel under the "Forbidden Hoosac Mountain." 
Chief among the canal and railroad magnates may be men- 
tioned George Tibbits of Dutch Hoosac. He was elected 
Senator by the Federalist Party for the Eastern District of 
New York, during the office of Gov. De Witt Clinton between 
1815 and 181 7, and introduced the State System for finan- 
ciering the construction of Erie Canal. A legislative act 
was passed, adopting Tibbits's Bill, and signed by Governor 
Clinton, April 15, 181 7. The first lock of Erie Canal was 
completed at Lockport by engineer Nathan Preston Stod- 
dard, son of Parson Stoddard of the First Church of New 
Lebanon, N. Y., a lineal descendant of Col. John Stoddard of 

Fort Massachusetts fame. 

450 



Progress during the Hoosac Tunnel Era 451 

A Board of Commissioners, including the Hon, Daniel Noble 
of Williamstown (chairman), William E. Brayton of North 
Adams, and the engineer, Loami Baldwin, of Boston, and four 
others, was appointed by the Legislature in July, 1825, to 
consider the survey for a canal over Hoosac Mountain. The 
opening of the Erie Canal took place on November 25, 1825, 
and the boat, Seneca Chief, conveyed the Governor's Council 
from Lockport to Albany. The Hoosac Canal Committee, 
headed by engineer Loami Baldwin, during the same month 
explored the headwaters of Hoosac Mountain, north of the 
portals of the Hoosac Tunnel. A route was surveyed by way 
of Worcester, Springfield, and Westfield rivers, and another 
by way of Fitchburgh, Miller, and Deerfield rivers. Each 
plan made North Adams a common centre. The latter 
survey was favored for the canal, although a tunnel through 
Hoosac Mountain was proposed as a more permanent line 
of transit. 

Railroading was then in its infancy. The Mohawk and 
Hudson steam passenger line, chartered May 27, 1826, being 
the first in this country. It was opened between Albany 
and Waterford, September 24, 1831. Edward Everett, in 
a speech during 1827, said: "A system of internal im- 
provements has commenced, which will have the effect, 
when a little further developed, of crowding within a few 
years the progress of generations." 

The Albany Legislature passed an act, April 18, 1831, 
incorporating the Troy Turnpike and Railroad Company, 
with power to construct a railroad or turnpike from the city 
of Troy up Hoosac Valley to Bennington and Pownal as far 
as Massachusetts Line. George Tibbits was elected the 
foremost director in May, and on January 10, 1832, it was 
estimated that the cost of equipping the road with engines 
and cars would be $450,000. 

On January 12, 1833, all the directors, except George 



452 The Hoosac Valley 

Tibbits, voted to construct a turnpike instead of a railroad. 
He believed in the proposed Troy and Hoosac Tunnel Route 
to Boston, and in 1834 he personally engaged Prof. Amos 
Eaton and his students of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 
of Troy to survey a railroad route to the base of Hoosac 
Mountain in North Adams. Mr. Tibbits, then a gentleman 
of seventy years, accompanied Eaton's students on foot, 
sharing the hardships of the expedition with them. 

The Rensselaer, Saratoga, and Ballston Spa, Railroad was 
incorporated, April 14, 1833, under the; directors: Pres. 
Richard P. Hart, John Knickerbacker, John House, Stephen 
Warren, William Pierce, James Cook, William Haight, and 
Joel Lee, and completed, October 8, 1835. The Western 
Railroad, now the Boston and Albany Line, extending from 
Schenectady by way of Waterford Union Toll-Bridge of the 
Hudson to Lansingburgh, was completed as far as Pittsfield 
in 1843, within twenty miles of North Adams. 

The largest manufacturing companies of the upper Hoosac 
during the same year subscribed $90,000 in stock toward 
building a branch line of twenty miles between North Adams 
and Pittsfield. In order to expedite the work, $31,000 in 
cash was raised, after which the Western Railroad Company 
later completed and equipped the Pittsfield and North 
Adams line with engines and cars costing $450,000. The road 
was opened during the annual Agricultural Fair and Cattle 
Show; and passenger, freight, and truck cars were pressed 
into service to accommodate the Berkshire crowds. It was a 
week famous in the annals of a century of progress in Hoosac 
Valley. 

The Hoosac Tunnel ' had its visionary birth, April 4, 1848, 
when the Legislature of Massachusetts incorporated the 
Greenfield and Hoosac Tunnel Railroad Company, with 
power to build a railroad to the Vermont State Line in 

'Washington Gladden, From the Huh to the Hudson, 1872. 




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453 



454 The Hoosac Valley 

Pownal, and to connect with the Troy Railroad. Both 
of these companies were required to complete their sur- 
veys within two years, and to construct their roads 
within seven years from the date of their incorporation. 

The Troy Railroad Company, in 1848, included Pres. 
Amos Briggs of Schaghticoke, George Mortimer Tibbits of 
Hoosac, son of the Hon. George Tibbits; John E. Wood, 

D. T. Vail, Daniel Robinson, C. N. Merritt, J. C. Heartt, 

E. T. Gale, Elias Johnson, I. B, Hart, and Stephen B. War- 
ren of Troy; D. S. McNamara of North Hoosac, and Judge 
Levi Chandler Ball of Hoosac Falls. Work began on the 
line at "Bull's Head" farm in Troy, June 6, 1850. 

The subscription books of the Greenfield and Hoosac 
Tunnel Railroad Company were, however, at the close of 
six years, in 1854, blank pages. A legislative act passed that 
year granted its credit to the company for a loan of $2,000,- 
000, and E. W. Sherrel and Co. contracted to build the road 
and tunnel. The State loan was granted under such con- 
ditions that the contractors made little progress. In 1856, 
H. Haupt and Co. were engaged to complete the railroad 
from Greenfield to Vermont Line for $3,880,000. Headings 
and excavations began simultaneously at both the East and 
West Portals of Hoosac Mountain in 1856. The railroad 
between the West Portal and Vermont State Line was com- 
pleted in 1858. Meanwhile a passenger stage-coach con- 
veyed travellers over Hoosac Mountain to connect with 
Greenfield Railroad for Boston, until the completion of the 
Hoosac Tunnel in 1876. 

The formative rocks at the base of Hoosac Mountain 
consist of soluble talc, schists, and limerock of the Taconac 
Range, which merge with the flinty quartzite nodules of the 
Green Mountain bed-rock. The Hoosac consists of two 
summits: the eastern crest, 21 10 feet high, is about 1450 
feet above the bed of Deerfield River ; and the western brow, ;, 



Progress during the Hoosac Tunnel Era 455 

2510 feet high, about 1750 feet above the Hoosac River. 
Between the summits flows Cold River through the town 
of Florida to the Deerfield River. The lowest elevation in 
the intervale, on the line of the tunnel is about 800 feet 
above its highest grade. 

The West Shaft, 2500 feet east of the Western Portal, was 
sunk 318 feet, and Central Shaft, on west slope of the Hoosacs 
in Cold River Valley, sunk 1028 feet to same level, making a 
gradual up-grade between the two shafts. Work of tunnelling 
in 1 85 1 first began with pick-axes, hand-drills, and explosives. 
Quicksand was met at the Eastern Portal, and a second 
heading was made. Much difficulty was encountered at the 
Western Portal, owing to the fact that the workmen there 
struck the soluble talc schists, which formed streams of 
mud of the consistency of pudding. This resulted in an 
excavation of 550 feet of earth, 300 feet in width, by 75 
feet in depth. A casing of timber, 883 feet in length, was 
built for the support of the roof and the floor of the chamber. 
The first 900 feet of the tunnel thus consists of a solid 
tube of masonry, averaging eight thicknesses of brick. 

These obstacles lead the great wiseacres to declare that 
the Hoosac Tunnel could not be completed. The timely 
invention of nitro-glycerine and its successful uses under 
Prof. George Mowbray, made slow but sure progress after 
the picks struck the flint quartzite nodules in the heart of 
Hoosac Mountain. 

A rock-cutting machine, designed to aid in excavating 
headings, was hauled to Hoosac Mountain in 1851. After 
cutting ten feet of rock, it refused to work and was left 
standing near the Eastern Portal for old iron. Later, in a 
letter dated September 25, 1858, H. Haupt prophesied to 
General Wood that the slowest progress of another new bor- 
ing machine was fifteen inches an hour, and that the tun- 
nel could be completed in twenty-six months. But the 



456 The Hoosac Valley 

monster auger refused to bore a single inch, and like the 
cutting-machine was abandoned for old iron. 

The engineers constructing Mount Cenis Tunnel through 
the Alps adopted steam-power drills. Engineer Doane 
later introduced air-compressed power-drills in Hoosac Tun- 
nel. A dam was constructed on the Deerfield above the 
Eastern Portal, and ninety pounds of compressed air to the 
square inch was piped into the tunnel to operate the pistons 
of the drilling-machines. Haupt and Co., after excavating 
a mile and two feet, resigned their work in 1861. A legisla- 
tive act in 1862 decided that the State should complete the 
Hoosac Tunnel, and in February, 1863, F. Shanly and Bro. 
from Canada, contracted to complete the excavation, and 
build the railroad for $4,750,000 by March i, 1874. 

The slopes about the "Tunnel City" assumed the charac- 
teristic atmosphere of a Western mining camp, and the acci- 
dents that befall mining districts failed not to visit North 
Adams. The power-house, containing the machinery opera- 
ting the drilling-machine and pumps over the Central Shaft, 
was destroyed by fire, through an explosion of a tank of gaso- 
line, October 19, 1867. The hoisting buckets, loaded with 
rock, announced the catastrophe to the thirteen miners, 583 
feet below the burning building. 

The heroic Mallery was lowered by ropes to the bottom of 
the shaft the next morning and reported a depth of fifteen 
feet of water, but no signs of living or dead men. A year 
later, a new building, equipped with pumps, removed the 
water and recovered the bodies of the entombed miners. 
Tradition records that ghostly forms haunted the trail 
between the West Shaft and Central Shaft until the bodies 
were buried on the hillside beneath the blue sky. 

Tourists visited the tunnel to behold the mechanism of the 
novel drilling-machine, and the explosive action of the car- 
tridges of dynamite attached to a galvanic battery. The 



Progress during the Hoosac Tunnel Era 457 

poet, Oliver Wendell Holmes, once prophesied that the millen- 
nium and the completion of the Hoosac Tunnel would take 
place at the same time. On Thanksgiving Day, November 
27, 1873, the final blast broke away the last barrier of rock 
separating the Hoosac from the Deerfield Valley. A vari- 
ation of Y6 of an inch existed between the two headings. 

Nineteen weary years had elapsed from the time of the 
opening to the time of the closing blast which completed the 
Hoosac Tunnel, four and three-fourth miles in length, 
through the wall of the "Forbidden Hoosac," over which 
Nature had inscribed "No Thoroughfare." It remains one 
of the world's wonders in pioneer engineering, although 
Mount Cenis Tunnel, begun after the Hoosac Tunnel, is 
seven and a half miles in length. 

The value of manufactures on the upper Hoosac in 1868, 
according to records of the Internal Revenue Department, was 
$7,000,000, much of which was iron, woollen, cotton, and 
leather goods. The opening of the Hoosac Tunnel took 
place when the first truck cars passed safely through the 
mountain's wall, February 9, 1875. Passenger trains did 
not make regular trips until the autumn of 1876. Merely 
to shorten the distance between Boston and Albany by nine 
miles actually cost 196 lives and $20,241,842, The line of 
the tunnel is marked by telegraph poles over the Hoosac 
Mountain, observed to advantage from the engineer's 
signal block-house, still standing on the brow of Ragged 
Mountain, opposite the Western Portal, 

The Hudson River Railroad was opened for passenger 
trains on October i, 1851, while the Harlem Extension of 
the Putnam Division, passing from Chatham through Little 
Hoosac Pass to Petersburgh Junction and thence to Ben- 
nington, was one of the pioneer roads. The Bennington 
branch of the Rutland Railroad — now a part of the New 
York and Montreal Railroad — was reorganized with the 



458 The Hoosac Valley 

Harlem Extension by Pres. Abram B. Gardner and Trenor 
W. Park of Bennington in 1877. After the latter's death, 
Gov. John G. McCullough of North Bennington became a 
director. Branch roads connect with the Hoosac Tunnel, 
Fitchburgh, and Boston line — now known as the Boston and 
Maine Railroad — at Petersburgh Junction, Hoosac Junction, 
Eagle Bridge, Johnsonville, Schaghticoke, and Mechanics- 
ville Junction. The Valley of Mingling Waters becomes 
the vale of mingling railroads. 

The leading manufactures of North Adams consist of 
woollen, cotton, print goods, shoes, and leather novelties. 
The historic Linwood Mill, founded by Briggs Bros, in 1822, 
produced cassimeres and cheviots. The mills are now owned 
by Stephen W. Barker, the wool-merchant of Troy. The 
Blackington Mill, founded in 1822 by Wells, Blackington, 
and White turned out satinet. Later it was converted into 
a woollen mill by Sandford Blackington and his son, William 
Blackington. The Braytonville Mill was founded by 
William E. and Thomas A. Bray ton in 1831 for the manu- 
facture of printing cloth a yard wide, and was converted into 
a woollen mill in 1863, by Sandford Blackington and Daniel 
Dewey. The hamlet was then known as Deweyville, now 
Braytonville. 

The Greylock Cotton-Mill was founded in 1846 and re- 
organized in 1880 as a gingham-mill. It is now operated as 
a part of Plunkett's Berkshire Cotton Plant of Adams, and 
contains 25,000 spindles and 600 looms for the production 
of fine lawns. Johnson's Factory occupies the finest mill- 
site in Hoosac Valley. It was founded as a warp-mill by 
Sylvander Johnson, Nathaniel Hathaway, George Bly, and 
Peter Blackington in 1850, and later reorganized as a 
gingham-mill. 

The first print works of North Adams were founded by 
Caleb B. Turner in 1830, on the site of Otis Hodge's iron 




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The Hoosac V^alley 



furnace. Later, the place was occupied by the caHco works 
by Stephen B. Brown and Duty S. Tyler. The Arnold 
Print Works were founded by Harvey and John F. Arnold, 
descendants of Gov. Benedict Arnold of Rhode Island. The 




Greylock Factory Village, North Adams, Massachusetts, at the base of 
Mount Williams, the northern abutment of Greylock Range. Factory chim- 
neys and Church spires replace the cannon mounts of the Old Forts of Hoosac 
Valley. 

Beaver Print Works were founded in 1832 by Maj. Loring 
Rice and George W, Bly, after which Union Village in Clarks- 
burgh was organized north of North Adams. The Freeman 
Print Works were founded by Levi L. Brown of Adams at an 
equally early day. The present Windsor Print Works, near 
the junction of the Mayoonsac with the Ashawaghsac, consist 
of a consolidation of the Arnold, Beaver, and Freeman works. 
The shoe business of North Adams began in 1843, when 
Edwin Childs and David C. Rogers opened a small shop. 



Progress during the Hoosac Tunnel Era 461 

The largest shoe concerns in North Adams to-day include 
those founded by Mi lard, Cady, Chase, Whitman, Canedy, 
and Sampson, and engage an average of 2500 operators. 
In 1870, Sampson employed 75 Chinamen during a strike, 
which proved the first introduction of Chinese labor in 
New England. The leather business was founded by Daniel 
Barber. It is the only New England concern finishing seal, 
morocco, and pigskin leather both for shoes and novelties 
direct from the green hides. 

James Hunter, Sr., a Scotchman from Galashiels in 1847, 
founded a machine shop on the east bank of the Ashawagh- 
sac, near the site of the historic furnace. There is scarcely a 
woollen mill in the United States not supplied with machin- 
ery from Hunter's machine shop. At an early day North 
Adams became celebrated as a mechanical centre. Allen 
B. Wilson invented his sewing-machine in the town. During 
the spring of 1850, he left North Adams with his sewing 
machine model for New York to secure a patent. In 1865, 
he returned and built the Wilson House with the profits of 
his invention, now manufactured as the Wheeler and Wilson 
sewing-machine . 

The Rev. Washington Gladden states' that Allen B. 
Wilson invented a sewing-machine without help or suggestion 
from anybody else, and without having seen or heard of a 
sewing-machine. The idea was purely original with him. 
The Wheeler and Wilson was a practical success from the 
start. 

The manufactures of Adams Village consist o cotton, 
paper, lime, and marble. The Berkshire Cotton Manufac- 
turing Company was organized, August 10, 1889, by sons 
of Gen. W. C. Plunkett, first Lieutenant-Governor of Mas- 
sachusetts. Mill No. I was dedicated in February, 1890, 
with a concert attended by 6000 people. Mill No. 2 was 

'Washington Gladden, From the Hub to the Hudson, 1872. 



462 The Hoosac Valley 

dedicated, October 5, 1892, by Gov. William McKinley, of 
Ohio, after the passage of McKinley's tariff bill. The cost 
of the first two mills exceeded $1,000,000. Mill No. 3 was 
dedicated by William McKinley in 1899, after his election 
as President. The whole plant is equipped with 2100 
spindles and employs 1000 hands, and is acknowledged sec- 
ond to no other American cotton concern. The L. L. Brown 
Paper Company is noted for its superior hand-made ledger 
paper the world over. The historic Harbor Mill of Cheshire 
on the upper Ashawaghsac still remains as a landmark. 
The Greylock Shirt Company at Adams, founded in 1891, 
produces 500 dress shirts weekly. The Shirting and Table- 
cloth Company was founded by Levi L. Brown and is now 
operated by James Renfrew at Renfrew. At Maple Grove 
the Adams Bros, run a cotton yarn-mill. 

The Adams Marble Quarry on Ragged Mountain was 
opened in 1 895 and produces pure crystal marble 99 i^o\ % 
carbonate of lime. It is equal to the Lee and Dorset 
quarries, and only surpassed by the Italian marbles. The 
New England lime-kilns carry on an extensive business and 
control a branch kiln at Kreigger Rocks in North Pownal, 
Vt. 

The Bennington manufactures of the upper Walloomsac 
consist of pottery, stoves, furnaces, gunpowder, and paper- 
pulp; dress goods, shoddy, knit underwear, and hosiery; 
men's uniforms, cuffs, collars, waxed-paper, mineral soap, 
and ochres. 

Col. Olin Scott, a descendant from several of the pioneer 
mill-owners of historic Bennington, invented machinery 
for the manufacture of gun-powder during the Civil War, 
and now ships it throughout the United States, Canada, 
Mexico, Brazil, Russia, and South Africa. Later he erected 
powder-mills at Marquette, Mich., Youngstown, O., Scran- 
ton, Pa., New York City, and Wilmington, Del. His 




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464 The Hoosac Valley 

machine-shop at Bennington produces machinery to-day 
for the manufacture of wood-pulp for paper stocks, which is 
shipped throughout the United States, Canada, Newfound- 
land, Mexico, Japan, Russia, Germany, Norway, and Sweden. 

Trenor W. Parks born in "Woodford City" was named 
after Thomas W. Trenor. He became a famous jurist in 
California, and after his return to the Walloomsac Valley 
he built a palatial mansion in North Bennington, on the 
farm of his father-in-law, ex-Gov. Hiland Hall. Among his 
bequests may be noted the Trenor W. Park Public Library 
Building, the Soldiers' Home at Bennington, surrounded 
by a beautiful park, adorned by a famous fountain, and 
the Gothic Congregational Church at North Bennington. 
Through Park's enterprise the Panama Railroad was pur- 
chased and re-sold to the present Panama Canal Company. 

The Norton pottery and John Van Spiegel stove and 
furnace works flourished during early days. The pulp and 
paper-mill industries of the Walloomsac included the Fillmore 
and Slade pulp-mill at Bennington Falls, which occupied 
the site of the historic Benton and Fuller paper-mill of 
seventy-five years previous, at Paper-Mill Village. The 
Stark Paper-Mill Company controls the old stone mill built 
by Edward Welling in 1833 on the site of Tory Haviland's 
grist-mill at North Bennington; the Sodom or State Line 
paper-mill, and also the Valley Falls paper-mill on the lower 
Hoosac. 

The knit underwear and hosiery industry was founded by 
Henry Bradford in 1854, and this plant is now owned by Col. 
Lyman F. Abbott and William H. and Edward W. Bradford. 
Charles H. Lindloff, Norman Puffer, George Rockwood, 
and Tiffany Bros, also turn out knit underwear and ship 
goods throughout the United States. Crawford and Carney 
manufacture shoddy; Enos Adams, mineral soap; Bottom 
and Torrance, cuffs and collars; Coy and Babcock turn out 



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The Hoosac Valley- 



over ten tons of waxed paper daily, shipped throughout 
the States. 

The pioneer products of North Bennington consisted of 
starch, manufactured by Edward Welling in the old stone 
grist-mill in 1850. In 1867, the place became the Welling 
and Thatcher paper-mill. The mill-pond belonging to the 




The Walter Abbott Wood mowing- and reaping-machine shops, Hoosac 
Falls, New York, fou?ided in 185 1. Wood's machines are harvesting in the 
fields on five continents to-day. 



Vermont Mill Company covers fifty acres, occupying the 
site of the "Old Doty Cotton Mill," built in 1811, now 
the site of the "E. Z." waist factory, operated by Clark and 
Haight. The latter is the proprietor of the Superior Manu- 
facturing Company of Hoosac Falls. Six hundred "E. Z." 
children's waists are turned out daily. Cushman's furniture 
novelties are manufactured in the Truman Estes stone 
cotton-mill built 1840. The Walbridge Company and the 
Hawley White Company in Hinsdillville both manufacture 
stereoscopes and lenses sold throughout the world. 



Progress during the Hoosac Tunnel Era 467 

The financiers and inventors of central Hoosac mill-centre, 
between Pownal and Eagle Bridge, include James Fisk, Jr., 
the railroad magnate, known as the "Prince of Erie." As a 
child he resided with Mrs. Albro on the northeast corner 
of River and Main streets in Pownal. A memorial monu- 
ment marks the grave of Mrs. Albro in Oak Hill Cemetery. 
On the west bank of the Hoosac, opposite Kreigger Rocks, 
is located the Westinghouse Farm, settled by the great- 
grand-fathers of George Westinghouse — the inventor of the 
airbrake — now President of the Westinghouse Electrical 
Corporation of New York, Pittsburgh, and London. 

The name of Walter Abbott Wood of Hoosac Falls mill- 
centre is a memorable one. He was a son of the Quaker, 
Aaron Wood, born October 23, 181 5. They located in central 
Hoosac and manufactured wagons and ploughs until 1852; 
and between 1 845 and 1 848 young Wood invented a mowing- 
machine. In 1 85 1, the London Society of Arts drew the 
world's attention to American inventions, including Wood's 
mowing- and reaping-machines. The same year John H. 
Manning invented the Illinois mower and harvester com- 
bination. Wood secured territorial rights and improved 
and manufactured 300 of Manning's machines in 1853 at 
Hoosac Falls. Five years later he opened his London ofhce, 
and in less than twenty-five years shipped a thousand 
mowing-machines to England. 

At the opening of 1857, there had been patented 156 
m.owing-machines and 62 harvesters in the United States. 
The Manning machine, combined with Wood's inventions, 
figured in all the National and International Exhibitions, 
and received the gold medals between 1862 and 1876. At 
the International Exhibition at Vienna, Wood was regarded 
as a "Benefactor to Humanity" and awarded the Grand 
Diploma of Honor for introducing mowing- and reaping- 
machines in Europe. These machines are now found the 



468 The Hoosac Valley 

world over. The number of machines produced annually 
in Wood's Hoosac Falls shops was 25,000, the sale of which, 
previous to Wood's death, netted $3,000,000 a year. 

The Malleable Iron Works of Hoosac Falls was founded 
by Isaac C. Johnson of New York City and William Nichols 
of Hoosac in 1 87 1. It consumes over 800 tons of iron annu- 
ally in the manufacture of carriage ironings, carpenter, and 
agricultural tools. 

The Schaghticoke mill-centre about Hart's Falls turns out 
woollen-goods, cable, paper, and powder. The woollen-mill 
founded by Amos Briggs and Thomas Vail in 1863 turned 
out fancy cassimeres. It is now a branch cf the historic 
Linwood Mill of North Adams, J. J. Joslin of Buskirk 
Bridge purchased the mill in 1878. Both the Schaghticoke 
and North Adams cassimere-mills are now owned by the 
wool merchant, Stephen J, Barker of Troy. 

The Eagle Shirt Works of Schaghticoke were opened in 
1876 and finished 12,000 dozen shirts annually. The Pow- 
der-Mill is one of the oldest industries of the town, located 
half a mile south of Hart's Falls. Drs. Franklin and Saxton 
were among the pioneer proprietors and passed through 
several explosions. 

The Cable Flax-Mill was founded by Lake and Sproat in 
1 87 1. It occupies the historic site of Joy's linen-duck mill 
and supplies the market of the world with rope, twine, yarn, 
and shoe thread, from their Troy, New York, and San 
Francisco offices. Over 6000 pounds of raw material of flax 
are consumed daily, from which are produced 5000 pounds 
of finished material. 

The promoter, George Tibbits of Dutch Hoosac, also 
owned vast estates in Schaghticoke. He once conceived of 
a plan to use the water-power of Hart's Falls to furnish power 
for several factories in the gorge between the "Big-Eddy" 
and the "Devil's Chimney," opposite the "Fallen-hill" 




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470 The Hoosac Valley 

in Old Schaghticoke. A "brush dam" was begun on the 
south bank of the Hoosac between "Hell's-gate" and "In- 
dian-square," opposite " Buck's-neck." It consisted of trees 
bohed with their branches in layers, that served as trans- 
verse timbers. The whole structure was covered with earth, 
with gates or conduits to furnish power to a series of mills, 
one below the other. A tremendous cloud-burst in the 
highlands caused a destructive freshet in Hart's Falls gorge. 
The brush dam was lifted bodily by the Fiend of Calamity 
and the visionary dream of the manufacturing city of Schagh- 
ticoke floated down to Mechanicsville and Cohoes Falls mill- 
centres. The ruins of the brick walls of one of the gates and 
the mounds of the brush dam are still discernible at " Indian- 
square." 

The Hoosac Valley Street Railway Co. was chartered in 
1886. The line was first equipped with the five bob-tailed 
horse cars, running between North Adams and Adams, and 
extended to Pittsfield in 1887. Pres. William B. Baldwin 
in 1889 equipped the line with Thomson-Houston electric 
motors with a power plant at Zylonite. This road was 
among the first six electric roads equipped with motor power 
in this country. It was here that the Thomson-Houston 
motors were experimented with before being introduced 
upon other lines. 

During 1889, the Sand Spring line between North Adams 
and Williamstown was completed and in the spring of 1906 
the extension to Bennington was completed. It connects 
with the Hoosac Falls Road. The grade between the village 
of Pownal and Pownal Centre is 437 feet in two and one- 
half miles. The construction of this section cost the com- 
pany considerably over $1,000,000. The pine grove and 
swamps about Lake Ashawagh ' lie two miles east of Pownal 

' " Bogs of Etchowog" in Bog-Trotting for Orchids. See Note i, at end of 
volume, and p. 493. 



Progress during the Hoosac Tunnel Era 471 

Centre, in the shadow of the Dome. A picturesque car 
line formerly extended from Bennington to the base of 
Mount Stark— the heights of Glastonbury. A cloud-burst 
on the Walloomsac headwaters took place a few years ago 
and the freshet demolished the tracks. 

The electric car line from Stockbridge through the Hoosac 
and Walloomsac passes of the Green and Taconac Mountains 
to Bennington and Hoosac Falls offers the most picturesque 
and historic excursions to be found in New England. 

The medicinal qualities of the Wampanoags' Sand Springs 
of White Oaks, Williamstown, were first known to the Hoo- 
sac Owls of the Mahicans. The hunter, Aaron Smedley, 
in 1762, was the first Christian known to bathe in the pool. 
Dr. Charles Bailey of Pittsfield purchased the Mineral 
Springs in 1830, and Greylock Hall was built and opened 
by Foster E. Swift in 1871 . The hotel burned in 1887. 

During 1893, Dr. S. Louis Lloyd founded the Sand Springs 
Sanitarium. Merck's analysis of the Wampanoags' Springs 
proved them to have a thermal temperature of 74° through- 
out the year, and that they were without any traces of lime. 
For rheumatism and kidney troubles they are superior to 
the Hot Springs of Arkansas, Aix-la-Chapelle, and Carlsbad 
in Prussia and Bohemia. 

From the time of the construction of the Hoosac Tunnel, 
the Valley folk were united in their desire to advance both 
commercial and intellectual pursuits. When in 1894 the 
Massachusetts State Board of Education proposed to build 
several normal colleges. North Adams was foremost in 
welcoming the suggestion. Her citizens offered $100,000 in 
land and money as an inducement to locate one of the schools 
in the "Tunnel City" — the "liveliest business centre in the 
State" — with a population of over 25,000. 

In presenting the Hoosactonians' plea before the legisla- 
tive committee. Dr. John Bascom of Williams College signi- 



472 The Hoosac Valley 

ficantly pointed to the map and said: "North Adams sits 
at the Western Gateway of the Commonwealth." This 
phrase became the legend adopted on the seal of the "Tunnel 
City," after its incorporation as a city in 1895. The seal 
consists of an engraving of the Western Portal of Hoosac 
Tunnel, encircled with the declaration "we hold the 

WESTERN GATEWAY." 

Above the waving branches of the park-enfolded vale of 
the Mayoonsac and Ashawaghsac, ' at North Adams, one be- 
holds a multitude of church steeples and factory smoke- 
stacks. Among the spires are those of the First Baptist 
Church, the fourth built on the site in 1880; the Second 
Congregational Church, built in 1865; the Methodist Church, 
dedicated in 1873; St. John's Episcopal Church, dedicated 
in 1869, and the Universalist Church, built in 1893. St. 
Francis's Irish Catholic Church comprises nearly 12,000 
members — one half of the population of the City, while the 
French Notre Dame Cathedral comprises over 6000 mem- 
bers — one-fourth of the City's population. The Russian 
Jewish Synagogue, built in 1892, had forty members at 
that date. 

Among the school towers are noted Drury Academy High 
School on Colgrove Hill. The pioneer academies included 
Eastman's School for Girls and Parsons's School for Boys. 
Nathan Drury of Florida in 1840 equipped Parsons's School 
with chemical and physical apparatus and willed $3000 to 
found Drury Academy. The Trustees changed it to Drury 
High School in 185 1 , and it has sent forth many distinguished 
graduates. The Normal School and Mark Hopkins Training 
School on Church Street are among the best equipped in the 
State. 

On the slopes of Bald Mountain^ in the north part of the 
City stands the North Adams Hospital, dedicated in March, 

' See Note i, at end of volume. "Clarksburgh Mountain. 



Progress during the Hoosac Tunnel Era 473 

T.u J'^" B^'-kshire Hills Sanatorium in the northwest part 
of the City was founded by Dr. William F. Brown in 1806 
It accommodates 200 patients and it is the largest private 
hospital m the United States for the treatment of sarcoma 
by the escharotic method-surgery without the use of a knife 






'jgosKi 



The Slate Normal College and Taconac Hall, North Adams, Massachusetts. 

Houghton Memorial Library occupies the Sandford Black- 
ington Mansion. It was a gift of the Hon. Albert C. Hou-h- 
ton m 1896 to the City, together with $10,000, as a memorial 
to his brother, Andrew J. Houghton of Boston. Both were 
born m Stamford, Vt. The library contains over 16000 
volumes and manuscripts. The Fort Massachusetts His- 
torical Rooms and Natural History Museum occupy the 
library building. 

From Forest Park Observatory, west of McKinley Square 
at Adams may be seen the Quaker Meeting-house and ceme- 



474 The Iloosac Valley 

tery; the spires of the Baptist, Methodist, Universalist ; 
Irish, French and Pohsh Roman Cathohc churches, and the 
towers of the Town Hall and Memorial Library; while 
above all looms Mount Greylock. 

The corner-stone of the Library was laid by President 
McKinley in 1897. After his assassination, the citizens of 
Adams on October 10, 1903, erected the first heroic statue 
of the martyred president. Four bronze tablets represent 
the principal historic acts of McKinley's life : As Commissary 
Sergeant during the Battle of Antietam in 1 862 ; Addressing 
the House of Representatives on the measures of the McKin- 
ley Tariff Bill; Delivering his Inaugural Address, March 4, 
1897, ^t Washington; and a quotation from his Buffalo 
Address, delivered September 6, 1901, before his assassina- 
tion : "Let us remember that our interests lie in Concord, not 
Conflict, and that our real eminence is in the victories of 
Peace, not those of War." 

Susan B. Anthony, the pioneer leader of the agitation for 
women's rights, was born at her grandfather David An- 
thony's homestead, Bowen's Comer, two miles east of 
McKinley Square, Adams, on February 15, 1820. She wor- 
shipped in the Old Quaker Meeting-house at the foot of 
Greylock, and at the age of fifteen taught a primary school 
at her home, charging neighboring children a dollar a week 
for instruction. She completed her own education at the 
Friends' Boarding School in Philadelphia. Daniel Anthony, 
her father, removed to Rochester neighborhood, New York, 
and Susan taught a school in Utica at $15.00 a month 
in 1847, at the age of twenty-seven years. She was asked 
to resign, and the District Committee appointed a man in 
her place with twice her salary, notwithstanding the fact 
that he rendered inferior service. This gross injustice to 
her sex led to her maiden speech on woman's rights in the 
neighboring Baptist Church. Her last visit to Adams was ] 



V. 



Progress during the Hoosac Tunnel Era 475 



at a family reunion on July 30, 1897. At that time she 
addressed the Berkshire Historical Society in Forest Park 
Pavilion. The David Anthony homestead was purchased 
by the late Alexander Horton, intended as a centre for 













:j:aMmL. 



Memorial Library, McKinley Square, Adams, Massachusetts. 
Statue of the martyred President McKinley, the first heroic monument to 
President McKinley erected in the United States, igoj. 

"Let us remember that our interests lie in Concord, ?tot Conflict, and that 
our real eminence is in the victories of Peace, not those of War." — President 
McKinley's Buffalo Address before his assassination, September 6, igoi. 

Suffragists, although the building burned down soon after 
Miss Anthony's death. 

The Trout Hatchery north of Adams Village produces 
annually 250,000 trout to supply the brooks of western 
Massachusetts. On the Morey and Howland farms is loca- 
ted the Hoosac Valley Park, opposite the Cross Road, built 
by the Electric Car Company in 1891. It is an hour's ride 
from Bennington. 



476 The Hoosac Valley 

A broad view greets one from the Battle Monument on 
Bennington Hill, including the "Giants of the Vale": 
Equinox and ^olus on the north; and the Dome, Greylock 
and Mount Hopkins on the south; while in the shadow of 
Mount Anthony the spires of the Congregational, Metho- 
dist, Baptist, Episcopal, Presbyterian, and Roman Catholic 
churches point skyward. 

The controversy of the Bennington Centre post-ofiice dur- 
ing 1847 resulted in Postmaster John C. Hasv/ell's engaging 
Dickerman Rider and forty yoke of oxen to haul his office- 
building down the hill to the corner of Main and South 
streets. Haswell was the editor of the Vermont Gazette. 
A rival newspaper was soon established and the Washing- 
ton officials re-established the Centre post-office and Post- 
master Haswell resigned. 

Bennington Village was incorporated in 1849 and its 
population in 1900 was 5656. The general post-office, 
however, was established in the village in 1848 and the pres- 
ent Rural Free Delivery System inaugurated in 1885. 
The double Shire System of Bennington County provides 
for alternate court sessions at the half-shire towns of Ben- 
nington and Manchester. The court-house and the jail 
were erected on South Street at Bennington in 1869, after 
a decision of a legislative committee, composed of Ebenezer 
N. Briggs and Abishai B. Harrington. 

Of the famous preachers, teachers, and abolitionists cen- 
tred about the First Church at Bennington Centre between 
the Revolution and the Civil War may be mentioned the 
Rev. Hollis Read, the missionary author ; the Rev. Absalom 
Peters, the " Father of Home Missions " ; William Lloyd Gar- 
rison, ' editor of the Journal of the Times, and the Rev. Isaac 
Jennings, author of Memorials of a Century. Mr. Saunders, 
author of several public school books, found more teachers 

' A monument to Garrison's memory stands on The Parade. 




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477 



478 The Hoosac Valley 

from Vermont in the Western and Southern United States 
than from any other State in the Union. 

Among the pioneer schools of Bennington may be men- 
tioned the Old Brick Academy, south of the Battle Monu- 
ment; Union Academy in Bennington Village, built in 1821 ; 
and Mount Anthony Seminary and Bennington Academy, 
opened in 1829. The Misses Clark, and the Misses Carpen- 
ter, Knight, and Gould schools for girls opened later. 

The village of North Bennington is as progressive as 
Bennington. Among its spires are those of the Methodist, 
Universalist, Presbyterian, and Roman Catholic churches. 
Overlooking the picturesque Falls Quequick, east of the 
village of Hoosac Falls, may be observed the spires of the 
First Baptist and St. Mark's Episcopal churches. The lat- 
ter church was dedicated by Bishop Horatio Potter in 
i860, and the John Hobart Warren chimes and clock in 
the tower cost $6000. Nor is one likely to overlook the 
steeple of the Augustian Fathers St. Mary's Church, in 
which is hung a heavy-toned bell weighing 2690 pounds, re- 
echoing among the dark ravines of the encircling hills. 

The chimes of the Thompson Memorial Chapel of Wil- 
liamstown are challenged for beauty of tone only by the 
chimes of the All Saints' Episcopal Chapel of Hoosac, built 
by George Mortimer Tibbits and dedicated by the Rev. 
Dr. Cummins. The chapel is built of unhewn stone and 
cost $20,000. But the chimes are valued at $12,000 — the 
smallest bell being a relic of mediaeval times, over five and 
a half centuries old. It was an old bell, ringing the Christ- 
ians to prayers in Europe, about the time the French Father 
of St. Ange, France, hoisted the St. Croix banner in 1540 
among the Hoosacs. 

The pulpit of All Saints' Chapel is occupied by the Rev. 
John B. Tibbits and his son, the Rev. Edward Tibbits, both 
graduates of Williams College and grandsons of the Hon. 



A^ / 







The Balloon North Adams. The factory chimneys loom 
up in the distance at the base of Bald Mountain of the Green 
Mountain Range, North Adams, Massachusetts. 

" Peace hath her victories 
No less renowned than War." 



479 



480 The Hoosac Valley 

George Tibbits. The Hoosac School for Boys is under the 
tutorship of the Rev. Edward Tibbits. 

The Mapleton Baptist Church was moved to the hill east 
of All Saints' Chapel at Hoosac in 1824. A new building 
was built on its site in 1831 and remained standing until 
1870, when the present brick church was dedicated. 

The Old Baptist Church on the hill was occupied between 
1849 and 1852 by Elder William Arthur, father of Gen. 
Chester A. Arthur. Young Arthur taught in the brown 
schoolhouse at North Pownal between 1850 and 1852. 
When in 1852 James A. Garfield of Ohio was a Freshman 
at Williams, he also taught penmanship during the evening 
in the same schoolhouse, and presided over a Sunday-School 
class at the Congregational Church. The schoolhouse still 
stands, but the church burned recently. After President 
Garfield's assassination, Vice-President Arthur succeeded to 
the Presidency of the United States. 

The pioneer Hoosac school committee in 1 796 consisted 
of Sylvester Noble, Peter D. Van Dyck, John Comstock, 
and Joseph Dorr. The system was succeeded by a super- 
intendent and supervisors in 1844. Ball Seminary was 
incorporated and built in District No. i, at Hoosac Falls 
in 1843, at a cost of $3567, by the late Judge Levi Chandler 
Ball, a native of Wilmington, Vt., where he was born, 1809. 
For twelve years the Seminary ranked first in New York 
State. The trustees, Walter Abbott Wood, the Rev. 
De Witt, and Charles H. Merritt, later converted the 
Seminary into Ball's High School. 

Among the steeples of Schaghticoke Village may be seen 
those of the Presbyterian, Methodist, Episcopal, and Roman 
Catholic churches. The last mentioned contains a bell 
weighing 1650 pounds, hung in the tower, 115 feet above the 
water table. The parish consists of over 2000 members. 
The miniature lake formed by the dam of the Electrical 



Progress during the Hoosac Tunnel Era 481 

Power Company above Hart's Falls reminds one of the 
ancient glacial lake, whose terraced shores are still discern- 
ible throughout the Valley of Mingling Waters. The 
Troy Reservoir, nearly four miles in length, occupies the 
entire Tomhannac Valley east of East Schaghticoke 
Station. It is fed from Lake Babcock and Long Pond, 
located in the Hoosac Lake District of Grafton. 

A number of years ago, the Fiend of Calamity visited the 
villagers of Schaghticoke Point in the form of a scourge and 
hundreds died. The place became known as the "Vale of 
Death" instead of the "Vale of Peace." Similar malarious 
vapors, known to the pioneer Christians, were described by 
the poet, Thomas Moore, in his Evil Spirit of the Woods, 
during 1804: 

Now the vapor, hot and damp. 
Sheds the day's expiring lamp. 
Through the misty ether spreads 
Every ill the white man dreads. 

The close of a Century of Progress in Hoosac Valley 
witnesses not only rapid transit by way of the Grand Barge 
Erie Canal, recently completed between Waterford and 
Chicago, but a National School of Ballooning founded in the 
City of North Adams, which is a centre for balloon ascen- 
sions in New England. 

Among other enterprises is that of the gladiolus culture 
in Berlin on the Little Hoosac. The gorgeous plants are 
grown not only for their flowers but for stocking the world's 
market with bulbs. 



31 



CHAPTER XXIV 

LITERARY SHRINES OF THE VALLEY OF MINGLING WATERS 

161O-I9IO 

Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into 
you as SU71 shine flotos i?ito trees. The tvinds will blow their oiv?i freshness into 
you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves. 

John Muir. 

Mahican Muse — Washington Irving as "Diedrich Knickerbocker" — William 
Cullen Bryant — Nathaniel Hawthorne — Henry David Thoreau — The 
Towers of Mount Anthony and Greylock Parks — Catherine Sedgwick— 
Elizabeth Payson Prentiss — Helen Hunt Jackson — Albert Hopkins and 
the Alpine Club — Isaac Jennings — Levi Chandler Ball — Hiland Hall 
— Arthur Latham Perry — William Dwight Whitney — John Bascom — • 
Thomas Nelson Dale. 

THOUSANDS of sunrise worshippers climb to the sum- 
mits' of Greylock and Mount St. Anthony to get their 
good tidings. The harmonious colors mantling the undulat- 
ing mountain waves of the Taconacs have in the past thrown 
their charm over the Mahican seers, and continue to inspire 
the philosophers of civilized nations. 

For ever, since the world began, thy eye, 

Grey-headed mount, hath been upon these hills. 

Piercing the sky, with all thy sea of woods 

Swelling around thee, evermore thou art, 

Unto our weaker, earthly sense, the type I 

Of the Eternal, changeless and alone. ^ 

' See illustrations, pp. 3-493. 

^ David Dudley Field, Greylock; Perry, Williamstown and Williams 
College, p. 795. 

482 



Literary Shrines of the Valley 483 

No trace of the muse of the Mahicans has come down 
to us: 

Yet, perchance, the Indian hunter, 

Many a lagging year agone, 
GHding o'er thy rippHng waters 

Lowly hummed a natural song. ' 

The Pilgrimi sailors who survived the perilous voyages of 
the Half-Moon and of the staunch Mayflower, built their 
chapels on the sites of the Hoosacs' shrines of Manitou and 
Hobbamocko. Here where their Moodus seers held their 
pow-wows, our bards and philosophers have trod : 

'Mong the deep-cloven fells that for ages have listened 
To the rush of the pebble-paved river between, 

In the old mossy groves on the breast of the mountain 
In deep lonely glens where the waters complain.^ 

The Hoosac hunting-grounds are as ancient as Great 
Unami, the fabled tortoise that dwelt along the fern-shaded 
shore of the Cambrian Sea, ebbing at the base of Greylock 
and Mount St. Anthony, ages before the Hoosac Pass of the 
Taconacs marked the devious course of its lakes and rivers. 
In the old gray town of Tawasentha (the place of the many 
dead) mingles the dust of the Lenni-Lenape Kings from the 
unknown shores of ukhkopeck beyond the sea. 

The ancient breccia obehsks on the lower Hoosac mark 
the shrines of Manitou and Hobbamocko, although the names 
of the Hoosac pow-wow poets have been forgotten, and 
Enghsh grass flourishes over their tombs. Thoreau said: 
"Heroes survive storms and the spears of their foes, and 
perform a few heroic deeds, and then : 

' Thoreau, Week on the Concord and Merrimac Rivers, p. 306. 
^ Bryant, " I cannot Forget with what Fervid Devotion." 



484 The Hoosac Valley 

' Mounds will answer questions of them, 
For many future years.' " 

Goethe, in his Italian Travels, says that the peasants 
brought up in that country looked over their shoulders at 
their ruined towers : ' ' That they might behold with their own 
eyes what I had praised to their ears, . . . and I added 
nothing, not even the ivy which for centuries had decorated 
the walls." 

Strangers have come to erect a tower to the memory of the 
departed warriors of Wappanachki, on the shores of their 
ebbing Unami Sea, near the statue of the Goddess of Liberty. ' 
It is hoped that those born and brought up in the shadow of 
Greylock, Mount Anthony, and the Witenagemot Oak, will 
also look over their shoulders and behold " with their own 
eyes," the moss-grown shrines of the Hoosacs and Schaghti- 
cokes, and cast a stone on a cairn to their memory. 

Hither the silent Indian maid 
Brought wreaths of beads and flowers, 
And the gray chief and gifted seer 
Worshipped the god of thunders here.^ 

The poet, Bryant, in the ancient Legends of the Delawares 
and Mahicans, relates that Onetho, the bowyer-chief, beheld 
the whiteman's lightning arrows of the sky overthrow his 
nation's council oak. He procured the polished weapon 
and was later slain himself in his favorite Bellows'-Pipe 
hunting-grounds, at the eastern base of Mount Greylock. 
Onetho's spirit still haunts the Vale and breathing hard 
sends : 

The shower of fiery arrows round. 

The English pioneers of Northfield and Springfield behold- 

' John Wanamaker, Jr., Paris, France, proposed Indian statue to be erected 
on Staten Island, New York City. 

^ Bryant, An Indian at the Burial-Place of his Fathers. 




The Iron Tower on the bald Summit of Mount Greylock. The Summit is J505 
feet above sea level aytd the Tower is 50 feet high. 
thou Greylock, graceful monarch! 

Thou art king of all this land; 
And thus travellers look with pleasure 
From thy summit to the strand. 

Where we now thus tread so softly, 

In the million years gojie by, 
Here the rolling waves have wandered, 

Like clouds against the sunrise sky. 

Louis Edward Niles, Mount Greylock. 
485 



486 The Hoosac Valley 

ing the "Giants of the Northwest" capped with a grey-lock 
of mist at sunrise or a cloudy nightcap at sunset, christened 
the highest summit Grey-Lock' after the frowning chieftain 
of the Woronoaks, who wore a grey -lock of hair. From 
Lake Onota in Pittsfield, Greylock and Mount Griffin 
resemble a gigantic horseman's saddleback 10,000 feet 
in length by 600 feet in depth, Hawthorne during his 
stage ride from Pittsfield to North Adams, July 26, 1838,^ 
sat outside with the driver, Piatt, leaving the newly mar- 
ried couple inside the coach "to their love-pats and 
benign expressions of matrimonial sweetness." Upon 
arriving at Adams, Hawthorne inquired the name of the 
mountain rising upon his left. Piatt informed him that 
"it was a very high hill," known as Greylock, a name which 
he greatly preferred to the Pittsfielders' designation of 
Saddleback, This is evidently the first record of the name 
Greylock for the highest of the Berkshire Hills. Oliver 
Wendell Holmes in September, 1850, read a dedicatory poem 
at the opening of Pittsfield Cemetery, in which he refers to 
the Ragged Mountains about the base of the " Twin- thrones" 
of the "Giants of the North" as: 

The huge shapes, that crouching at their knees. 
Stretch their broad shoulders, rough with shaggy trees. 

The savage character of the forests of the lower Hoosac 
was described by Mrs, Sigourney of Hartford, in her poem 
Schaghticoke and the Knickerbackers. The Irish poet, Thomas 
Moore, visited the region during the summer of 1804, and 
in his poem of Cohoes Falls was not unmindful of the wood 
of pine and the rainbows arching in the sunlit mist above the 
leaping waters. 

About the same time that Moore visited Cohoes Falls, 

'"Greylock Park Reservation," New Eng. Mag., Dec, 191 1, 
'Hawthorne, American Note-Book, 




487 



488 The Hoosac Valley 

Washington Irving, under the assumed name, "Diedrich 
Knickerbocker," was writing the legends of Rip Van Winkle 
and the Bully Boys of Helderberg Mountains. His Knicker- 
bocker's History of New York was published in 1809. Young 
Irving formed a life-long friendship with Herman Jansen 
Knickerbacker, son of Col. Johannes Knickerbacker 2d. 
During Irving's visits to the Old Mansion at Schaghticoke, 
it was his delight to listen to Uncle Tom's ghost and witch 
tales, and the adventures of Ethan Allen, Ignace Kipp, and 
the Yankee schoolmaster, Mallery, of "Spook Hollow" and 
Schaghticoke Plains. 

The rusty, black coat, olive-velvet breeches, and small 
cocked hat of "Grandfather Knick" himself, worn by the 
historian, "Diedrich Knickerbocker," together with the 
old pigskin-covered chest and saddle-bags of his Friesland 
and Masterlandt ancestors were all stern realities to young 
Irving and the Knickerbacker boys, who acted charades in 
the attic of the "Hostead" on rainy days. Indeed, there 
are still stored many quaint relics of the good old manorial 
days of Dutch Hoosac. 

Irving in his musings on death that appear in the Knicker- 
bocker s History of New York says : 

Such are my feelings when I visit the family Mansion of 
the Knickerbockers, and spend a lonely hour in the chamber 
where hang the portraits of my forefathers, shrouded in 
dust, like the forms they represent. With pious reverence 
do I gaze on the countenances of those renowned burghers, 
who have preceded me in the steady march for existence, — 
whose sober and temperate blood now meanders through 
my veins, flowing slower in its feeble conduits, until its 
currents shall soon be stopped forever ! 

Irving's musings on death, to which Bryant had access 
at college, in 1810-1811, may have given him the impetus 
for the first draft of Thanatopsis. 




Flora's Glen, Williamstown, Massachusetts, known to-day as Thanatopsis 
Glen. The poet, William Cullen Bryant, while a Sophomore at Williams, in 
1810-1811, is reported to have composed the first draft of his great poem on 
Death in this rock-ribbed vale. 

Go forth, under the open sky, and list 
To Nature's teachings. 

William Cullen Bryant, Thanatopsis. 
489 



490 The Hoosac Valley 

Irving's meditations on death, however, were written 
in the ' ' narrow house, ' ' in full view of the Schaghticoke and 
Knickerbacker burial-field, where the Witenagemot Oak 
could send its roots abroad and pierce the mould of the seers 
of ages past. Bryant's musings were conducted "under the 
open sky" in Flora's Glen, two miles west of Williams 
College campus. He says : 

"When thoughts 
Of the last bitter hour come like a blight 
Over thy spirit, and sad images 
And breathless darkness, and the narrow house, 
Make thee to shudder, and grow sick at heart; — 
Go forth, under the open sky, and list 
To Nature's teachings. 

Irving, beholding the portraits of his forefathers on the 
walls of his silent chamber in the Knickerbacker Mansion, 
said: 

These, I say to myself, are but frail memorials of the 
worthy men who flourished in the days of the patriarchs, 
but who, alas, have long since mouldered in the tomb toward 
which my steps are insensibly and irresistibly hastening. 
Carried away by the delusions of my fancy, I almost imagine 
myself surrounded by the shades of the departed, and hold- 
ing sweet converse with the worthies of antiquity. 

It was believed that Irving in 1808 had the dread disease, 
consumption. He later visited England for his health. 
The poet, Bryant, closes Thanatopsis with a measured strain 
similar to that of Irving: 

Yet not to thine eternal resting-place 
Shalt thou retire alone, nor couldst thou wish 
Couch more magnificent. Thou shalt lie down 




491 



492 The Hoosac Valley 

With patriarchs of the infant world — with kings, 
The powerful of the earth — the wise, the good 
Fair forms, and hoary seers of ages past, 
All in one mighty sepulchre . . . 

By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave, 
Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch 
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams. 

During Bryant's sojourn of seven months at Williams 
College, his room-mate, John Avery, accompanied him on 
long walks to all the glens, water-falls, and historic battle- 
fields in the Valley. The poet, in a satire entitled Descriptio 
Gulielmopolis, written during the spring of 1811, confesses 
that : 

Amid these vales I touched the lyre, 
Where devious Hoosac rolls his floods. ^ 

In his poem Green River, he describes the stream with its 
waters of green, and colored pebbles and sparkles of light. 
His Inscription for the Entrance to a Wood pictures Flora's 
Glen. 

The mossy rocks themselves. 
And the old and ponderous trunks of prostrate trees 
That lead from knoll to knoll a causey rude 

Or bridge the sunken brook. 



^to^ 



The first drafts of Thanatopsis, Earth, Hymn to Death, 
and many other poems are believed to have been made in 
Flora's Glen by Bryant between October, i8io,andMay, 181 1. 
The hallowed shrine is known as Thanatopsis Glen, located 
at the foot of "Bee Hill," near the entrance to Hemlock 
Glen Road. Charles Woodbury once accompanied Ralph 
Waldo Emerson to the spot and remarked that "it was a 

' Perry, Williamstown and Williams College, pp. 340-341. 



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494 The Hoosac Valley 

place apt to suggest the thoughts found in Thanatopsis." 
Emerson himself was moved to recite Wordsworth's Excur- 
sion to his companion in the glen. The author-critic, 
Hamilton Wright Mabie, in his chapter, "The Mountain 
Brook," published in his volume. Under the Trees and Else- 
where, describes Flora's Glen as the birthplace of the 
"noblest poem on Death ever written." The romantic 
"rock-ribbed" ravine is a hallowed shrine not only for 
Williams College Alumni but for foreign tourists visiting 
Williamstown. It was a favorite haunt of Cornelia Grin- 
nell Willis, wife of the poet, Nathaniel P. Willis, and 
Theodore F. Wolfe mentions the sequestered glen in his 
Literary Shrines. The artist-naturalist, Hamilton Gibson, 
resided during 1885 at a farm-house on "Bee Hill" above 
Flora's Glen, while writing Bright Eyes and other nature 
studies. 

Among the historians of the Hoosac and Walloomsac may- 
be mentioned Isaac Jennings, author of Memorials of a 
Century. It is a local history of the Old First Church of 
Bennington Centre and of Walloomsac folk, published in 
1869. Gov. Hiland Hall wrote his Early History of Vermont, 
published in 1868, at his home in North Bennington. Later 
Judge Levi Chandler Ball published his Amials of Hoosac, 
and Arthur Latham Perry his invaluable Origins in Wil- 
liamstown and Williamstow7i and Williams College, in 1896 
and 1899. T. Nelson Dale has published the Geological 
History of Mount Greylock, and of the Hoosac Pass of the 
Taconacs. 

During 1825, a party of Williams College students, headed 
by David Dudley Field, the orator of his class, paid their 
reverence to the famous French General, La Fayette, on 
The Square at Pittsfield. Later, Marquis La Fayette visited 
Henry Harteau's Mansion at the foot of Mount Greylock 
in Adams. The story reads that the gallant General, while 



Literary Shrines of the Valley 495 

there, fell in love with a beautiful American lady, who was 
engaged to an American officer, 

Washington Irving, known as "Sunny-side Penman" 
of the Hudson Valley, belongs also to Hoosac Valley fame. 
He died, November 28, 1863, and Joseph Foster Knicker- 
backer, the "Poet of the Vale" in Old Schaghticoke, wrote 
an In Memoriam to Irving, published in his Visions of the 
Arch of Truth and Other Poems in 1876. The Arch of Truth 
represents "A lofty, over-circled gateway or entrance to 
Courts of surpassing glory and adornment, opening to the 
abodes of Immortality." Such an arch, surmounted by a 
dove, leads to the Knickerbacker Mansion to-day. It was 
erected by the "Poet of the Vale." General La Fayette 
visited the Knickerbacker Mansion in 1825, and it is said 
that he occupied the southeast chamber that still contains 
the high-posted bedstead, adorned with canopy and valance. 

Mount St. Anthony, east of the site of Fort St. Croix, 
was designated in memory of the first Jesuit missionary, 
St. Antoine, born at Padua, Italy, by the Jesuit Father 
accompanying Jean Allefonsce's French traders from St. 
Ange up the Grande River of the Mountains in 1540. St. 
Croix Creek was christened Walloon Creek in 1630 by the 
Protestant French Walloons from the Rhone Valley, although 
the river is known to-day as Walloomsac. At least three 
different towers have been built on Mount Anthony. Each 
has fallen before the angry blast of Boreas. Mount Anthony 
is now a part of Colgate's Park, adorned with winding roads 
with vistas along the mountain-side. 

The Cave of St. Anthony is located on the northeastern 
slope of the mountain, and is entered by a very small fissure 
in the rocks, which widens after a descent of twenty feet. 
Later one confronts the humiliating problem of a solid wall 
with only a yawning arch two feet high at its base. If one 
would behold the glittering halls where once flowed the 



496 The Hoosac Valley 

glacial Lake Bascom, he must stoop and crawl in the mud 
like the Hoosacs' fabled turtle, Unami. 

The Cave of Mount .^olus is located twenty-five miles 
northward in the Walloomsac Gap, and is similar in structure 
to the Cave of St. Anthony, and has been explored sixty 
rods. One of its halls is nine rods long and four wide, 
adorned with crystal pillars and containing a lakelet. Dur- 
ing 1868, Prof. Charles H. Hitchcock and his Amherst class 
in geology christened Dorset Mountain, Mount yEolus. 
The legend reads that the old Wind King fled from the 
fabled halls of Stromboli in Greece, and took up his abode 
in the marble caves of the Taconacs. The King himself 
resides in vEolus Cave, and his servants, the North, South, 
East, and West winds, in neighboring caves. E. Parter 
Dyer wrote the christening chorus, sung by the students, 
while Professor Hitchcock broke a bottle of pure spring 
water on Platform Rock near the entrance of the Cave. 

This Mountain grand, henceforth all men 

Mount i^olus shall call, 
'Till earth shall sink and loose again 

The giants, mighty thrall.' 

Mount Greylock, twenty miles south of Mount Anthony, 
together with Equinox and ^olus, are called the "Giants of 
the Vale." Hawthorne^ during the summer of 1838, and 
Thoreau^ during the summer of 1846, explored Mount Grey- 
lock. Hawthorne loved best to saunter to the Cave of the 
Mayoonsac Valley, north of the city of North Adams, or 
through the Notch to the Bellows'-Pipe, and thence down 
the Southern Notch to the Hathaway homestead and Quaker 
Meeting-house. A mile below the meeting-house he met 

* Abby Hemingway's Vermont Historical Gazetteer. 

* American Note-Book. 

3 Week on Concord and Merrimac Rivers. 



Literary Shrines of the Valley 497 

Piatt, the stage-driver, who gave him a free ride to the 
"Whig Tavern" in the North Village. 

Hawthorne describes Piatt as a "lath-like, round-backed, 
rough-bearded, thin-visaged " fellow, who boasted that he 
was the first man to drive an ox-team to the summit of 
Greylock, when the first tower was built. He was headed 
by Pres. Edward Dorr Griffin of Williams College riding 
on horseback, and was forced to drive in a circle about the 
mountain with his timber. The date of the building of 
Griffin's Tower on Mount Greylock is unknown, although it 
was long before 1833, since President Griffin had a stroke 
of paralysis that season. However, when Hawthorne 
visited Notch Valley in 1838, the Tower had been destroyed 
a number of years. 

The second tower on Greylock was built in 1841 and was 
known as Albert Hopkins's Meteorological Observatory. 
Professor Hopkins and tutor James Henry Coffin headed 
several "Bees" and the Hopper farmers aided in building 
the tower. The timber was sawed at Pettit's saw-mill on 
the Hopper Brook. The first story consisted of a cubical 
blockhouse, twenty feet square. To this were added two 
retreating stories of framed timber, each twenty feet high.^ 

Between 1841 and 1850^ barometers, self-registering ther- 
mometers, wind-registers, and other meteorological instru- 
ments were placed in the chamber of the third story. The 
building later fell into decay and finally burned in 1857. 

Hawthorne, between July 26th and September 15, 1838, 
gives vivid descriptions in his American Note-Book of " the 
rude, rough, rocky, stumpy, ferny pastures" of "rugged, 
headlong Berkshire," where Greylock uprears his shaggy 
head covered with primeval forests. He considered the 
Hoosac Highlands a "most romantic and picturesque coun- 

' Dr. John Bascom, Greylock Reservation, 1907. 
= William D. Porter, Class 1850. 
32 



498 The Hoosac Valley 

try." Emerson thought Greylock "a serious mountain"; 
and Henry Ward Beecher later said: "Such a country never 
ceases to astonish and please. ... It is everlasting com- 
pany to you. It is, indeed, just like some choice companion 
of rich heart and genial imagination, never twice alike, in 
mood, in conversation, in radiant sobriety, or half-bright 
sadness, bold, tender, deep, various." 

Hawthorne often sat tilted back in his arm-chair on the 
porch of the North Adams House and observed the loungers 
about the steps. He describes "Captain Gavitt," believed 
to have been Capt. Jeremiah Colgrove, as a type of the 
pioneer Rhode Island Baptist settlers, who founded "Slab 
City," now North Adams. The old gentleman sold butter- 
nut meats and maple sugar while dispensing free philosophy 
on the contentment of old age. 

Among other characters mentioned by Hawthorne may 
be named: "Little boy Joe" — a lad of four summers who 
lived in the street, and begged of the loungers for figs, and 
invariably received "quids of tobacco." The one-armed 
Daniel Haynes, known as "Black Hawk" and "The Elder," 
descended from the Haynes family of Hoosac and Benning- 
ton. He was a prosperous pettifogger until he lost his right 
arm through a buzz-saw. That misfortune led to his Ben- 
nington girl jilting him, after which he became the famous 
Recluse of Willow Dell, on the "Clay Road" at the foot of 
Colgrove Hill in North Adams, where he turned his talent 
to condensing ashes to lye as well as to the manufacturing 
of soft soap. His slab-hut, covered with sods, stood on the 
bank of the tumbling Mayoonsac; and its site was pointed 
out to the writer, August 19, 1903, by the late venerable 
Jeremiah Wilbur. As a lad of fourteen, Mr. Wilbur piloted 
Hawthorne through the Notch Valley to his grandfather, 
Jeremiah Wilbur's Bellows'-Pipe Farm. Daniel Haynes sup- 
plied Landlord James Wilbur, father of the late Jeremiah 



Literary Shrines of the Valley 499 

Wilbur, with soft soap, at his tavern, now known as Richmond 
House, between 1829 and his death in 1848. Haynes owned 
two large dogs, which he hitched to a cart for the purpose of 
collecting grease from the villagers in exchange for soap. 
The blacksmith, Wetherell of Willow Dell, part of whose 
shops stands to-day, was regarded by Hawthorne as an 
interesting exemplar of the progressive Yankee. He was 
enormous in front as well as in the rear, and regardless of 
the opinions of his neighbors came regularly to the "Whig 
Tavern" bar to get his "toddy-sticks" of rock and rye. 
This was in marked contrast to the conduct of the one- 
armed, cowardly Haynes, whom Hawthorne later figured 
as "Lawyer Giles," the "elderly ragamuffin" in the tale of 
Ethan Brand, which is located about the site of Farnham's 
lime-kiln, at the base of Ragged Mountain. 

Later, Thoreau heard much of the Notch and Bellows*- 
Pipe hunting-grounds from Hawthorne. During the sum- 
mer of 1846, he came alone and on foot from Concord on the 
Merrimac over the "Forbidden Hoosac Mountain." He 
sauntered through the Bellows'-Pipe and thence climbed to 
the summit of Mount Greylock to hear the whispering winds. 

And ever, if you hearken well, 
You still may hear its vesper bell, 
And tread of high-souled men go by, 
Their thoughts conversing with the sky. ^ 

Thoreau described the breaking of the white light of dawn 
from Hopkins's Observatory on Mount Greylock, and said 
that when the sun began to rise, he found himself " a dweller 
in the dazzling halls of Aurora, into which poets have had 
but a partial glance over the eastern hills ... in the very 
path of the Sun's chariot, enjoying the far-darting glances 
of the gods. ' ' He adds : "All around beneath me was spread 

' Thoreau, A Week on tJie Concord and Merrimac Rivers, p. 229. 



500 The Hoosac Valley 

for a hundred miles on every side, as far as the eye could 
reach, an undulating country of clouds, answering in the 
varied swell of its surface to the terrestrial world it veiled. It 
was such a country as we might see in dreams, with all the 
delights of paradise." ' 

The "Hopper" and the "Heart of Greylock" are located 
on the western slope of the range. The former is an amphi- 
theatre resembling a miller's hopper. It is enclosed on the 
north by Simonds Peak of Prospect Range and on the 
south by "Stony Ledge," between which Hopper Brook ^ 
has eroded a deep pass to Green River. The soluble rock 
removed from the Hopper, according to Thomas Nelson 
Dale, the geologist, would, if inverted, form a pyramid 1500 
feet high with a base a mile square. 

"Stony Ledge" was known to Prof. Albert Hopkins as 
the "Bald-pate of the Lion Couchant," often designated 
by Williamstown people as "Bald Mountain." There are 
three other Bald Mountains between North Adams and 
Bennington. The writer ventures to rechristen the peak 
Mount Bascom, in memory of Dr. John Bascom of Williams 
College, a commissioner and a good friend of Mount Grey- 
lock Park. During 1849, Professor Hopkins led a picnic 
party, including Catherine Sedgwick and her Stockbridge 
friends, to the "Bald-pate of the Lion Couchant," to behold 
the grandeur of the Berkshire Hills. Fanny Kemble once 
declaimed Romeo and Juliet to a picnic party from Hop- 
kins's Observatory, and Charlotte Cushman, Rose Terry 
Cooke, "Godfrey Greylock," and Marion Crawford have 
climbed to the bald brow of the old chieftain Greylock 
to behold the smiles of the gods. 

The dark recesses of the amphitheatre of the Hopper har- 
bored sometime between 1 765 and 1 783 a gang of counter- 

' Thoreau, A Week on the Concord and Merrimac Rivers, pp. 245-246. 
^ See illustrations, pp. 165-175. 




'^ -a o 



SOI 



502 The Hoosac Valley 

feiters. They built their cabin on the north fork of the Hop- 
per Brook, known as Money Brook. Here many Spanish 
dollars and possibly Pine-Tree shillings were hammered out. 
A Williamstown hunter overheard the money-makers at the 
anvil and reported them to Justice Samuel Kellogg, who 
succeeded in capturing only their chest of tools. During 
1786, Caleb Gardner, son of Capt. Caleb Gardner of Han- 
cock Tavern, was hanged at Albany for passing counterfeit 
Spanish dollars that were undoubtedly hammered out by 
the Money Brook gang. 

In 1863, sixty Williams College students volunteered their 
services during the Civil War, including Lieut. Edward 
Payson Hopkins, the only child of Prof. Albert and Louise 
Payson Hopkins. Mrs. Hopkins died during January, 1862. 
Her widowed sister, Elizabeth Payson Prentiss, and her chil- 
dren resided for a time in Professor Hopkins's home. Mrs. 
Prentiss wrote Stepping Heavenward, Susie s Six Birthdays, 
Aunt Janes Hero, and The Home at Greylock. The last 
mentioned tale is said to be descriptive of the home of Mark 
Hopkins in Williamstown. Helen Hunt Jackson, author 
of the Indian romance, Ramona, also frequented President 
Hopkins's home. She wrote a short story about the servant 
girl of Professor Smith from Maine and the meddlesome 
Deacon's wife, published in the Demorest Monthly Magazine. 
It is descriptive of a newly married Professor's home life in 
aristocratic Williamstown. 

During the sad year 1863, Prof. Albert Hopkins organized 
the Alpine Club — the first organization of its kind in this 
country, for mountain climbing.* The White Mountain 
Club was organized in 1873; the Rocky Mountain Club 
in 1875; and the Appalachian Mountain Club in 1876. 
Between May 2, 1863, and November 29, 1865, the Alpine 
Club made fifty-six excursions. One of the interesting 

^Samuel H. Scudder, Appalachia, iv., pp. 45-54, November 12, 1884. 



Literary Shrines of the Valley 503 

papers chronicled by Professor Hopkins was entitled, Baco- 
nian Reminiscences, or the Short and Simple Annals oj the 
Poor House. It describes the Club's encampment at Bacon's 
Poor House, located on Mount Bascom in Bacon Park, dur- 
ing November, 1864. Nine members ascended the steep 
western face of Mount Greylock. Later the Alpine Club's 
camp-ground was chosen by the Rev, John Denison on 
Camp Brook, located on the south side of Bacon Park, over- 
looking the "Heart of Greylock" — an amphitheatre similar 
to the Hopper designated by Professor Hopkins. Nearly all 
the places of picturesque and historic interest of the upper 
Hoosac were christened by Professor Hopkins and the Alpine 
Club, Dr. John Bascom, and Prof. Arthur Latham Perry. 

The March Cataract of Bacon Brook is located in the 
southern portion of the Hopper. It is formed from the 
melting snows during March and leaps down the steep 
western face of Greylock over a semicircular, rocky ravine, 
adorned with hanging mosses. Wawbeek and Sky Falls 
lie in the northern portion of the Hopper. They rise on a 
fork of Money Brook, near the brow of Mount Fitch, and 
descend over 2000 feet down to the floor of the amphitheatre 
south of Wilbur Park. They are considered the highest 
permanent waterfalls in Massachusetts, and were discovered 
by Prof. Albert Hopkins while leading the Alpine Club in 
June, 1869. He says: 

The falls are in a dell so deep and lonely, that to most 
persons they are destined to remain among the myths of 
Greylock. Only those who have beheld the Notch and 
the Inner Hopper, or Hopper within the Hopper, are able 
to appreciate the tremendous powers that have nearly over- 
thrown the Chieftain Greylock himself. 

A cloud-burst took place in the Hopper, which resulted in 
an avalanche that cleared the rocky terraces for a distance 



504 The Hoosac Valley 

of 1000 feet. The members of the Alpine Club visited the 
place, November 4, 1865. Another cloud-burst occurred on 
the eastern face of Grey lock in August, 1902' that denuded 
the "Chief tain 's-stairway" from the summit down, stair 
by stair to Gould's Farm in Adams. 

Prof. Albert Hopkins died May 24, 1872. At that time 
he was preparing an illustrated book entitled The Mountains 
and the Months. It was to contain descriptive sketches 
from White Oaks and scenes among the Hoosac Highlands, 
compiled from notes made afield with the students of Wil- 
liams on Mountain Days and with the members of the 
Alpine Club. He was borne to his grave in College Ceme- 
tery, Mission Park, just as a glorious rainbow spanned the 
valley from the Taconacs on the west to Alberta's Range of 
the Green Mountains, The bell in the tower of the Con- 
gregational Church still tolls forth to his memory: "he 

BEING DEAD YET SPEAKETH." 

The late historian, Arthur Latham Perry, in the chapter 
"Backward and Forward," in Williamstown and Williams 
College, said that "William D wight Whitney and John 
Bascom were the most scholarly men ever graduated at 
Williams College," Dr. Whitney became editor-in-chief of 
the Century Dictionary, completed in 1898. Dr. Bascom was 
best known as an orator and philosopher, and published 
The Words of Christ in 1883, Problems in Philosophy in 1885, 
and an Historical Interpretation oj Philosophy during 1893, 
The latter, Professor Perry considered the "most important 
philosophical speculation from Pythagoras to Lotze," and 
one of the most valuable and comprehensive books on 
philosophy given to the world. 

The Greylock Park Association was incorporated April 
15, 1885. The capital was $20,000, held in shares of $25 

' H. F. Cleland, "Landslides of Mount Greylock and Briggsville, Mass.," 
Journal Geol., x., pp. 513-517, 1902. 




Dr. John Bascom, Orator and Philosopher, Williams College, Pioneer 

Promoter and Commissioner of Greylock Park Reservation. 

Died October 2, igji. 



50s 



5o6 The Hoosac Valley 

each. The Directors and Associate Members were citizens 
of Adams, North Adams, and WilHamstown. The Asso- 
ciation purchased 400 acres on the summit, and later expen- 
ded $4,425 building the North Adams Road from Walden 
Farm through Wilbur Park to the summit, a log cottage, barn, 
and the present iron tower. The Association, in the latter 
part of 1900, conveyed Grey lock Park property to the Gen- 
eral Court of Massachusetts for a State Park Reservation, 
to enclose 10,000 acres. The Legislature has appropriated 
in all $91,000 toward purchasing the specified land. It is 
now reported that 8243 acres have already been purchased, 
and the Reservation extends from Raven Rock on Ragged 
Mountain in the Notch westward to Mount Bascom, down 
to the base of the Hopper, and south from Slope Norton of 
Prospect Range to Jones's Nose and Roimds's Rocks. 

The roads of Greylock Park are nearly complete. A con- 
tinuous highway extends from North Adams through the 
Notch over the summit, thence to Lanesboro and Pittsfield. 
The bald brow of the Hoosac Highlands is now encircled 
with a pleasure trail. A road also branches off from the 
Rockwell Road and meets the main road from Pittsfield to 
WilHamstown at New Ashford Village. Another branch 
road leads down to the Alpine Club's camp -ground as far 
as the Bluffs on Mount Bascom in Bacon Park. A road 
from Adams is to be built westward over the summit through 
the Hopper, and thence along the Green River Road to 
WilHamstown. 

To the traveller standing on Simonds Peak in Wilbur 
Park or on Mount Bascom in Bacon Park, visions of beauty 
burst upon the eye as it takes in the devious windings of 
the little rivers in the Valley of Mingling Waters. Distant 
murmurs of leaping, laughing waters, falling from the Sum- 
mit into the "Heart of Greylock" and Inner Hopper, 
together with the soft whispering tones of Wawbeek and Sky 




The Arch of Truth, Front Gateway leading to the Knickerbacker Mansion, 

Old Schaghticoke, New York. 

The Arch was erected by Joseph Foster Knickerbacker, the " Poet of the 
Vale," to commemorate his poem, "The Arch of Truth," in 1876. The view is 
that obtained from the quaint, divided door of the hall of entrance to the "Ho- 
stead " of Grandfather Knickerbocker's Manor. Originally a Dove, symbolic of 
the Wakon-bird — Holy Spirit Dove of the Hoosacs — was carved on the crest of 
the Archway. 

" The Arch of Truth represented a lofty over-circled gateway or entrance to 
Courts of surpassing glory and adornment, and was, in its every part, a holy type 
of the portal opening to the abodes of Immortality.'' 

Joseph Foster Knickerbacker, A Vision: The Arch of Truth. 

507 



5o8 The Hoosac Valley 

Falls from a remote dell of the Hopper, are borne to the 
enchanted ear of the dreamer. 

Mount Greylock Park, says Dr. Bascom, becomes "our 
daily pleasure, our constant symbol, our ever renewed in- 
spiration, a gift to all who have a living fellowship with 
Nature."^ 

Reformers, hurrying the Millennium's dawn 
Urging to-morrow's blossom to bloom to-day, 
Here gird your baffled, warring minds anew.^ 

' Dr. John Bascom, Greylock Reservation, 1907. 
^Author unknown, Greylock. 



I 



THE HOOSAC VALLEY OF MINGLING WATERS 

The chill and startling strokes of war no more 
Disturb your blended streams with crimson oar; 
And naught but peace and softened scars remain 
To mark the moss-grown mounds of heroes slain. 

The years of gentle time have willed it so, 
And bade your mingling waters leap and flow 
From out the "Heart of Greylock's" brotherhood; 
To bless the hallowed "Vale of Peace" where stood 

The warriors reared in this calm solitude, 

Who gave their lives to serve a nation's good. 

Here, let these rivulets forever flow; 

Drink from the highland domes the melting snow; 

Drain from the dark ravines and hollows near, 
The mountain cascades, flowing soft and clear; 
Lead Sorrow's children upward to your source; 
Unfold the joyous secrets of your course. 

The highest land of Hoosac's noble hills 
Shall sweetly ring with song and louder trills; 
And many a spring within the "Bellows'" dumb, 
Shall swell and flow with swift yet soothing hum. 

Oft gentle Soquon, of Great Soquis' race, 
Sang in the "Bellows'" holy hunting-place; 
Where Onetho,^ the phantom chieftain, hies, 
Wielding the lightning weapons of the skies. 

' Bryant, Legend of the Delawares and Mahicans. 

509 



510 The Hoosac Valley 

And where devious Hoosac rolls his floods, 
The Homer of the New Arcadian woods 
First touched Apollo's true-toned lyre, 
And sang of Death with faith's undying fire. 

Here Mother Nature taught from year to year, 
The willing heart and mind of many a seer; 
Dear storied Tanglewood of Hawthorne's day, 
And Ethan Brand were moulded from this clay. 

And Wisdom's voicing pen, in Thoreau's hand, 
Has made us love these hills and understand 
Their value, in the universe of things; 
And hold them in our minds like echoings. 

Here 'neath New Antioch's glowing arch of peace, 
Great seers have striven for a world's release. 
"What art is theirs, the written spells to find 
That sway from mood to mood the willing mind!"^ 

'T is here the poets of all nations bring 

The autumn's oaken-branch — the bloom of spring; 

Calumet and Swastik — tributes hung in air, 

Around Mills's "Haystack" mission-shrine of prayer. 

Roll on fair Hoosac with Orontean's song; 
Flow peacefully through all the centuries long 
To that unbounded shore — Eternity! 
That God decrees alike for man and thee. 

Grace Greylock Niles. 

^ Bryant, The Poet. 



NOTES 



INDIAN ORIGINS OF THE HUDSON, HOOSAC, HOUSATONAC, 

AND MOHAWK VALLEYS 



ABENAKIS DEMOCRACY* 

(Wappanachki) 

Men of the East 

Warriors of the Rising Sun 

Eastlanders 



IROQUOIS CONFEDERACY 

(Aquinoshioni-Koneoshioni) 
Men of the West 
Warriors of the Flint 
Cabin-Makers 



LENAPE-WYANDOTTE RACES 

(Unami-Antinathin) 

Turtle Mother-tongue 

of 

Delaware-Huron Mochomes 

(Abenakis-Iroquois Grandfathers) 

(ALGONQUIN RACE) 

The Abenakis Democracy' and the Iroquois Confederacy originally con- 
tained three great totemic cantons of warriors, subdivided into several tribes. 
The former nation included the Turtle grandfathers of Great Unami, the 
Bears of Great Soqui, and the Wolves of Great Minsi. They resided in the 
Delaware, Hudson, Champlain, Connecticut, and St. Lawrence basins of New 
Netherland, New England, and New France. The Iroquois Nation contained 
the Turtle grandfathers of Great Antinathin, the Bears of Great Maquaas, 
and the Wolves of Great Enanthayonni. They occupied the Lake Huron 
and Mohawk-Hudson basins in New France and New Netherland west of 
the Hudson-Champlain divide. The Iroquois were hereditary enemies of the 
Abenakis warriors from time immemorial. The Abenakis king and council- 
lors occupied the Hudson, Hoosac, and Housatonac valleys; and the Iroquois 
king and councillors occupied the Mohawk and Cohohahoohra (West Canada 
Creek) valleys. They met their enemies on the field of contest in the Taconac 
and Green Mountains and laid claim to the neutral hunting-grounds of Lake 
Champlain region. The origin of Unami-Antinathin musical mother- tongue ^ 
is still unknown. 

' Electa F. Jones, Stockhridge Past and Present, pp. 18-20. 

^'The Abenakis and Iroquois names of places contain descriptive phrases 
according to prefix or affix : 

511 



512 



The Hoosac Valley 



DELAWARE-MAHICAN NAMES 



Ukhkopeck 



Mohegoneck 

Mahicansac 

Wappanachki 

Abenakis 

(Abnakes) 



Lenni-Lenapes 
Mochomes 
Minquas 
(Great Unami) 



Traditional country of the Lenni- 
Lenape Snake and Turtle grand- 
fathers in the Orient. 

The Delaware and Mahican country 
in the Occident. 

The "white light of sunrise" signify- 
ing: Eastlanders, Men of the East, 
Warriors of the Rising Sun, Occiden- 
tals. 

The "original and unmixed people" 
of Great Unami or Turtle Race. 
They were recognized as Mochomes 
(grandfathers) of the Abenakis De- 



Ac, ack, ic, ick, uc, uck, oc, ock, ing, 
ah, ea, eck, wa, wagh, wog, ra, etc. 
(Hoo-sac, Housatonac, Mayoonsac, 
Taconac, etc.) 

Wa, wauw, wagh (Wanalancet, Wi- 
gow-wauw, great sachem; Asha- 
wagh, land between Wi-gow-wauws) 

Ho, hoo, hooh, hous, uk-hooh, co- 
hooh (Hoo-sac, Hoosatonac, Housa- 
tonac) 

Co, ti, ca, ko, ga, go (Coos, Cohoes, 
and Ticonderoga) 

Os, oes 
Wi, we 
(Coos, Cooesac, Cohoes, Hooes, Hooe- 

sac) 

(Cohoesac, Cohohatatea) 

On 

Tar 

Asto 

Atea 

Cohoha, Cahoh, Gahoh 



Affixes signifying place or location. 
The affix ac has been uniformly 
adopted by the author for Hoosac 
and Housatonac names. 

Affixes or prefixes signifying sachem 
or chieftain, and their land. 

Prefixes signifying owl or orator's 
land or rivers. 

Prefixes denoting cascade or water- 
falls. 

Small or little. 

Great or broad. 

Cohoes Falls, Hooesac Falls. 

(Little Falls). 



I 



Hudson Valley beyond Cohoes Falls. 

Hill. 

Rocky. ^ 

Narrow pass or ravine. 

Landscape or valley. 

Cradle-hollows or pot-holes (Leaping 

waters). 



Notes 



513 



(Great Soqui) 
(Great Minsi) 



Algonquin Race 



Waum-theet 

Mon-nit-toow 

Manitou 

Manetho 

Onetho 

Mton-toow 
Hobbamocko 

Bachtamo 

Ken-ti-kaw' 
Kinte-Kaye* 



Wi-gow-wauw 
(Great Sachem) 



Sachem 

Sakemo 

Sake-ma 

Sagamore 

(Chieftain) 

We-ko-wohm 
(Castle) 



' Electa F. Jones, Stockbridge Past and Present 
' Ruttenber's Indian Tribes of Htidson River, p. 28 



mocracy. They resided about Dela- 
ware Bay and their grandsons of Great 
Soqui and Great Minsi, known as 
Noochwissacs (grandchildren), occu- 
pied the Hudson and Connecticut 
valleys in the mountains. 

A French Jesuit term, signifying, 
"musical mother-tongue" of the 
Lenni-Lenapes and their grandsons 
of the Abenakis Democracy. 

Great Spirit, God of the Heavens, 
Promoter of peace and welfare from 
the Country of Souls beyond the Sea. 



A fabled tortoise, the evil spirit, 
devil, or fiend of calamity, wor- 
shipped as the god of thunder. 

War-dance, known as devil-dance, 
observed before advancing against 
an enemy. First observed by the 
Christians at "Dans Kammer"^ 
(dance-chamber) at Newburgh Point 
on the Hudson. 

King of the Abenakis Democracy. 
After the death of the Great Sachem, 
one of his nephews (if he have any 
on his sister's side) was appointed to 
succeed him instead of his own sons 
or brother's sons. 

The sachem, chieftain, and petty- 
sagamore were subject to the Great 
Sachem in all national questions of 
war or peace. 

The Wigwam, or castle of the Great 
Sachem, was built by the Abenakis 
Nation at Chescodonta Hill and 



514 



The Hoosac Valley 



Passaconaway 
Uncus 
Aepjen 
(Great Soqui) 



Woh-weet-quan-pe-chee 
(Councillors) 



Schodac, the site of Albany ami 
Castleton on the Hudson, and later 
at Skatecook-site of Sheffield on the 
Housatonac. 

Great Sachems of Abenakis Democ- 
racy. The Bear canton of Great 
Soqui was considered highest -n 
dignity, and the king and his cabinet 
of councillors were chosen from the 
royal families of this race. The 
Great Sachem received no stated 
salary, although the warriors of the 
Pemocracy rendered tribute or taxes 
annually at the Festival of the Har- 
vest Moon of Autumn and the Festi- 
val of the New Moon of Spring. He 
■was supplied with a long We-ko- 
wohm, castle large enough to enter- 
tain the nation's councillors and wise 
men and priests from afar. Muk-sens 
(moccasins), skins, blankets, baskets, 
bags, and piles of corn and beans 
were rendered as the nation's tribute. 
The ancient medicine-bag, containing 
Hebrew Scriptures, Calumet, wam- 
pum belts, remained at the Great 
Sachem's castle. It descended with 
his office to his successor. After the 
death of a Great Sachem, the nation 
considered "their light put out, " and 
mourned under dark clouds until 
another king was appointed by the 
vote of the warriors and councillors 
of the Democracy. He must be 
peaceable and exhort his people to live 
in unity. He could be removed, if 
he failed to behave agreeable to his 
oath of office to his people. King Un- 
cus and Passaconaway were evidently 
dethroned and banished and sue- 
ceeded by King Aepjen. 
The cabinet of the Great Sachem. 



Notes 



515 



Un-nuh kan-kun 
(Runner) 
(Great Soqui) 



Secretary and messenger of the Great 
Sachem. He resided at the national 
castle of the nation, and guarded the 
Mno-ti (bag of peace), containing 
wampum-belts, the Calumets, and 
other symbols of friendship. He was 
required to Hght the Calumet for the 
Great Sachem and deliver all mes- 
sages of peace. He must above all 
be honest and trustworthy, or his 
feathers could be removed and 
another appointed to the office. 



Soquon 

Uk-hooh-que-thoth 
(Owl-sachem) 
(Great Soqui) 



Owl or Orator of the Abenakis De- 
mocracy. The office was won by wis- 
dom and merit and required a good 
memory, for the orator recorded 
the nation's historic traditions. He 
resided in the Uk-hooh-sac, or Hoo- 
sac Valley. 



Soquis 
Sequin 



War-whoop of the Hoosac Bears of 
Great Soqui. 



Maquon 
Maquon-pauw 
(Hero-sachem) 
(Great Minsi) 



Hero or Emperor's office of the De- 
mocracy was won only through 
merit and bravery. The Hero sat 
with the Great Sachem and his coun- 
cillors at all national councils held at 
Schodac Castle. His vote served to 
confirm their agreements. He was 
beloved by the warriors of the nation. 
In warfare the Hero became their 
brave and prudent leader. Great 
Minsi, or Wolf canton, next to Great 
Soqui or Bear canton, comprised the 
bravest warriors of the nation. Ma- 
quon's Mahicansacs occupied Moene- 
mine's Castle below Cohoes Falls 
of the Mohawk Valley, and Soquon's 
Soquonsacs or Hoosacs occupied 
Unuwat's Castle, on the east bank of 
the Hudson. They guarded the war- 
trails leading from the Iroquois Con- 



5i6 



The Hoosac Valley 



federacy to the Abenakis king's 
Schodac Castle. 



Mahican 



The war-whoop of Maquon's war- 
riors of Great Minsi, or Wolf Race, 
who bore the totem of a super- 
natural wolf, from which arose their 
canton's designation. At first they 
resided on the West bank of the 
Hudson, south of the Mohawk 
castles. 



Mahingan 



French-Algonquin name for Loup 
(wolf or dog). 



Myegan 



Schaghticoke and St. Francis war- 
riors' name for wolf in Nebraska and 
Dakota. 



Maihtshow 



Stockbridge's name for wolf in Wis- 
consin. 



Delawares 
Mohegans 
Algonquins 

Loups 
(Dogs) 



Present names of mixed Turtle, Wolf, 
and Bear warriors of New York, New 
England, and New France. 

The French Jesuits called all the 
Abenakis warriors of New York and 
New England Loups, or dogs, now 
called Mohegans. 



ANCIENT NAMES OF HUDSON VALLEY 



Mohegoneck 

Mahicansac 

Muhhekaneck 

Muhheakunnuck 

Mohegansac 

Mahicantuck 



The "ebbing and flowing river" of 
the Lenni-Lenapes. 



The Minquas' and Minces' name for 
the Heroes' or Mahicansacs' Valley. 



Mahikander 



The Hoosacs' or Soquonsacs' name 
for Aepjen's Schodac River. 



Notes 



517 



Cohohatatea 



Shatemuck 



Skeetecook 
(Stillwaters) 



Grande Rio De Montagne 
(Grand River) 



Mariritius 
(Orange River) 



Hudson River 



North River 



The Iroquois name for the Mahican- 
sacs' River, according to John 
Bleecker's translation in 181 1, re- 
ported to Dr. Samuel L. Mitchell. 
The name refers to the Hudson Val- 
ley, lying beyond the Cohoes Falls 
of the Mohawk's Valley of Leaping, 
Laughing Waters. 

The Mahicansac was known as 
Shaita-Pelican or Sea-gull River, 
according to Sachem Odjibioa. 

The Hudson was known as the River 
of Still-Waters, near the site of 
Skeetecook Village, at the junction 
of the Hoosac with the Hudson, oppo- 
site Stillwater Village. 

Grand River of the Mountains, 
according to Verrazzano's map, pre- 
pared by King Francis II. of France 
in 1524. Jean Allefonsce's traders 
from St. Ange, France, in 1540-1542, 
and Henry Hudson and his English 
and Dutch crew of the Half Moo?i in 
1609-16 10, refer to the Mahicansac 
as the Grande River of the Moun- 
tains. 

The Grande River was rechristened 
Mariritius River by the Dutch Boers 
and French Walloons between 1614- 
1624, in honor of Prince Maurice of 
Nassau and Orange. 

After the English conquest of New 
Netherland, the Orange River was 
rechristened Hudson's River in honor 
of the first English navigator, Henry 
Hudson, who with the Hollanders 
explored the stream in 1609. 

The Hudson River in 1664 was 



5i8 



The Hoosac Valley 



known as North River in order to 
distinguish it from the Delaware 
River, known as South River, and 
from the Varsch or Connecticut, 
known as East River. 



ANCIENT NAMES OF HOOSAC VALLEY 



Soquonsac 



Pauw-Hooh-sac 

Pan-Hoo-sac 

Hoosac 



Valley of the Owl-Sachem Soquon of 
Great Soqui Race. 

Uk-hooh-pauw's— the Owl's or Ora- 
tor's hunting-grounds beyond the 
Co-ho-ha-ta-tea, or Hudson Valley 
east of Cohoes Falls of the Mohawk 
River. 



Skatecook 

Schaghticoke 

(Valley of Mingling Waters) 

(Hoosac-Housatonac) 



Ash-a-wagh 
Nash-a-wog 



A term signifying "mingling waters" 
or the confluence of streams. After 
the removal of the Abenakis De- 
mocracy's Council-Fire from Scho- 
dac on the Hudson to the Housatonac 
Valley in 1664, the new national 
name of Skatecook was adopted for 
the Capital and the warriors were 
known as Schaghticokes. 

Terms signifying the land between 
the sources of two rivers and two 
Wauws or sachems. 



Nich-a-wagh 
Etch-o-wog 



Nack-te-nack 
Nach-a-quick-quaak 

Ashuwillticook 
Ahashewaghkick 
(Ashawaghsac) ' 



Lake Ashawagh and boglands, be- 
tween the sources of Hoosac and 
Walloomsac rivers, at the base of 
the Dome in Pownal, Vermont. 

Islands between the junction or at 
the confluence of two rivers. 

South Branch of the Hoosac, rising 
in the Ashawagh hills between the 
headwaters of the Hoosac and Housa- 
tonac rivers. 



■ The latter name has been retained since it is easily pronounced. 



I 



Notes 



519 



Mayunsook 

Mayunsac 

(Mayoonsac) 



North Branch of the Hoosac, rising 
on Ashawaghsac Mountain in Ver- 
mont, between the headwaters of 
the Hoosac and Deerfield rivers. 



Wampanicksepoot 
Wampansac 
(Green River) 



A south branch of Hoosac River, 
rising in the Ashawagh hills be- 
tween the Hoosac and Housatonac 
headwaters. 



Wicomsac 
Broadsac 
(Broad Brook) 



A north branch of the Hoosac, rising 
in the Dome and Mount Hazen of 
Green Mountains in Vermont. 



Hooesac 
(Little Hoosac) 



A south branch of the Hoosac, rising 
in the Ashawagh hills between the 
Hoosac and Kinderhook headwaters 
in Berlin, New York. 



Wa-nepimo-seek 
Nepimo 
Nepimoresac 
Nipmuth Creek 
(Shingle Hollow Brook) 



A west branch of the Hoosac River, 
rising on Rensselaer Plateau between 
the headwaters of the Hoosac and 
Tomhannac rivers, in Hoosac, New 
York. Residence of the sachem, or 
sakemo, of the Mahicans. 



Swastikasac 
St. Croix-sac 
Walloon Creek 
(Walloomsac) ' 



The east branch of Hoosac River, 
known as St. Croix, was first settled 
by French Walloons, from which 
arose the name Walloomsac. It rises 
in the Dome and Lake Ashawagh, of 
Pownal, and in Woodford, Vt. 



Uk-Hoohsac 
Owlsac 
(Owl Kill) 



Toh-kone-ac 



A north branch of the Hoosac, rising 
in the Ashawagh hills between the 
headwaters of the Hoosac and Batten 
Kill Rivers in New York. The Owl's 
sacrificial altar to Great Manitou and 
Hobbamocko was located below the 
junction of the Owl Kill with the 
Hoosac River. 

A south branch of the Hoosac, ris- 



' The name is a corruption of Walloonsac. 



520 



The Hoosac Valley 



Taconac 
Tomhannock 
(Tomhannac Creek) 



ing in the Hoosac Lake District on 
Rensselaer Plateau between the 
headwaters of the Hoosac and Kin- 
derhook rivers in Grafton, New York. 



Dwaasac 
(Dwaas Kill) 



A west branch of the Hoosac, 
near its junction with the Hudson. 
The Dutch name signifies "flowing 
both ways." "Kill" is a corruption 
of "kerk" and refers to St. Anthony's 
mission chapel, built near St. An- 
thony Kill, south of the Dwaas Kill. 



ANCIENT NAMES OF HOUSATONAC VALLEY 



Ausotunnoog 
Ousetonuck 
Housatunnuk 
(Housatonac) 



The Housatonac River has many 
spellings, corrupted by the English, 
Dutch, and Moravian missionaries. 
It is a name descriptive of the Abena- 
kis Democracy's national council-fire- 
place at Skatecook (Sheffield) which 
lies east, beyond Schodac and Co- 
hoes castles of the Hudson. It also 
refers to the over-mountain Valley 
of Mingling Waters beyond the Owl's 
Hoosac Valley, and should be spelled 
Hoosatonac instead of Housatonac. 



Toh-kone-ac 

Tar-co-on-ac 

Tagh-kan-ac 

K ' ta-kanatatshan 

(Taconac) 



The name for Taconac Mountains 
arose from the term Tohkoneac, first 
used to designate a large spring w'ith 
a rocky bottom near Copake Lake on 
Livingston's "Taghkanic Tract," 
west of the main Taconac Range. 
The Moravian missionaries corrupted 
the name later and designated the 
Dome — the great woodsy mountain 
east of Shekomeko, Dutchess County, 
N. Y. — K'fakanatatshan, signifying 
"great, woodsy rocky mountain." 
The name Taconac is now applied 
to the entire range from Dutchess 
County, N. Y., north to Addison 
County, Vt. 



Notes 



521 



Skatecook 

Schaghticoke 
(Sheffield) 



Wnogh-que-too-koke 

Wnahktukook 

Westenhuck 

(Stockbridge) 



A term signifying the confluence of 
two streams, from which arose "Val- 
ley of MingHng Waters," applied to 
both the Hoosac and Housatonac 
valleys. King Aepjen adopted the 
name Skatecook in 1664 for the site 
of his national council-fire about the 
junction of Wampanicksepoot, Green 
River, with the Housatonac River, 
now the site of Sheffield, Mass. 

The Moravian missionaries under 
Count Zinzendorf corrupted the 
names, Wi-gow-wauw (Great Sa- 
chem) and Skatecook to Westenhuck. 
The English in 1739 incorporated the 
town Stockbridge, and the Schaghti- 
cokes of the Housatonac became 
known as Stockbridges. 



Aepjen-a-hican 



King of the Abenakis Democracy. 
He located in Housatonac Valley in 
1664 and was discovered by the Eng- 
lish missionaries, Jonathan Sergeant 
and Samuel Hopkins, in 1734. 



Nana-apenahican Creek 



A small stream rising about "Monu- 
ment Mountain." King Aepjen's 
national Wekowohm (wigwam or 
castle) was built on this stream. The 
prefix. Nana, is the plural for bears 
and wolves, Aepjen (bear) and 
Hican (wolf) denoting that the 
Mahican warriors of the west bank 
of the Hudson joined Aepjen's 
bears on the east bank. 



Wampanicksepoot 
(Green River) 



Mah-kee-nac 
(Stockbridge Bowl) 



The place of wampum or small bugle- 
shells, used as the Abenakis Democ- 
racy's money or as coins interwoven 
in peace belts. 

A small lake christened by Catherine 
Sedgwick, as the "Bowl," 



522 



The Hoosac Valley 



Wawanaquassick 
Wachankasigh 
Mauswaseekhi 
(Monument Mountain) 

Deowkook 
(Rattlesnake Mountain) 

Skoon-keek-moon-keek 
(Lake Pontoosac) 



The "Hill of the Great Stone- 
heaps," known as "Fisher's-Nest" 
and commemorated in Bryant's poem, 
Monument Mountain. 

Wolves' Hill, occupied by the Mahi- 
can or wolf warriors. 

King Aepjen's hunting-ground for 
winter deer, now Pittsfield neighbor- 
hood. 



Lake Pontoosac 
Lake Onota 



The "winter hunting-ground for 
deer," in Pittsfield. 



Tawasentha 
(Burial-field) 



Kokapot 



The Abenakis king's Tawasentha 
(Vale of the many dead) was located 
in both the Hoosac and Housatonac 
valleys. About Hobbamocko's or 
Devil's Chimney on the Hoosac and 
about Indian Hill near Lake Onota 
many "weapons of rest" and mould. 
ering bones have been unearthed. 

Successor of King Aepjen (?). He was 
of the lineage of Ukhkopeck-Snake 
and Turtle grandfathers of Great 
Unami. 



Yokum 
(Soquon) ? 

Umpachene 



Occum 
(Uncum) 



The Uk-hooh (?) (Owl, or Orator, of 
Great Soqui). 

The Maquon-pauw, or Hero, of the 
Abenakis Nation, successor of Ma- 
quon of the Hudson and Hoosac 
valleys. 

The Unnuhkankun, or Runner (?), a 
messenger. 



ANCIENT NAMES OF THE MOHAWK VALLEY 



Hodesanne 



Traditional native country of the 
Iroquois Confederacy. 



Notes 



523 



Kayingehaga 



The Valley of Leaping, Laughing 
Waters, between Cohoes Falls on the 
Mohawk and Niagara Falls, on the 
St. Lawrence River. 



Aquinoshioni 
Koneoshioni 
Angiehorons 
(Iroquois) 



Wyandottes 
(Mochomes) 
(Great Antinathin) 
(Great Maquaas) 
(Great Enanthayonni) 



Angiehorons 
Angiers 
Mohaquas 
(Great Maquaas) 

Maquaas 

Mohogs 
Mohawks 

Cahohaisenhonone 
(Great Maquaas) 
(Great Enanthayonni) 



The name of the Iroquois Confeder- 
acy arose from a French Jesuit term 
adopted to distinguish the Warriors 
of Flint, whose Owl began his palaver 
with Iliro — I say or have said, — com- 
bined with the affix, Kone, expressing 
joy or sorrow, indicated respectively 
by the long and by the short accent. 

The "original and unmixed people" 
of Great Antinathin or Turtle 
fathers. They resided about Lakes 
Huron and Erie and became the 
grandfathers of the Noochwissacs — 
grandchildren of Great Maquaas and 
Great Enanthayonni or Bear and 
Wolf warriors, occupying the Mo- 
hawk and Hudson basin. 

The French and Algonquin designa- 
tion for the Warriors of the FUnt, 
occupying the Mohawk Valley above 
Cohoes Falls. 

The Dutch and English designations 
for the Bear and Wolf warriors of the 
Iroquois Confederacy. 

Agonerrhorons and Cahohaisenhonons 
— the Bear and Wolf warriors of the 
Fhnt. The Iroquois king and his 
councillors resided between Cohoes 
Falls and Cohohahoohra Falls, now 
known as Trenton Falls on West 
Canada Creek, a north branch of the 
Mohawk River. The Gahahoohpauw, 
or Owl, of the Confederacy occupied 
the Cohohahoohra hunting-grounds 
between East and West Canada 
Creek, known as the Royal Grant. 



524 



The Hoosac Valley 



Ganeagaono 

Gahahoose or Cohohaose 

Agoncrrhorons 

Gahahoose 

Skohare 



Canassatiego 

Canassishoro 
Canastagiowna 



Co-ho-hah or Cahoh 
Gahohahoose 
(Cohoes Falls) 



The Maquaas' hunting-ground of the 
Mohawk Valley above Cohoes Falls. 

Names of the villages and castles of 
the Iroquois king and councillors of 
the Bear and Wolf races, about 
Schonowe Meadows, known to the 
Dutch as Great Flats, on the site of 
Schenectady. 

The Gahahooh-pauw (Owl or Orator) 
of Great Maquaas. 

The valley of the Gahahooh, or Owl. 

The great maize-fields of the Gaha- 
hooh-pauw, or Owl. 

Cradle-hollows, pot-holes, or rocking, 
leaping, laughing motion of a canoe 
leaping the Cohoes Cataract with a 
warrior and his squaw. The legend 
led to the name Cohoes Falls, sig- 
nifying "ship-wrecked canoe, " of the 
Mohawk Falls. 



Great Antinathin 
(Huron Mochomes) 



Tharony-i argon 
(Hiawatha) 



Legend of the Iroquois Confederacy 
(Huron-Mohawks) 



The Master of Life,— God of Thun- 
der. Fabled Wyandotte Turtle 
grandfathers. 

The Holder of the Heavens, control- 
ling the lightning weapons of the sky, 
and the Moodus, or jargon, upheavals 
during earthquakes, and the thunder 
during hurricanes. 

The Iroquois myth claimed that their 
fabled Turtle grandfathers of Great 
Antinathin, like the giants of Roman 
mythology, were confined beneath the 
mountains — the Laurentian High- 
lands, near the site of Niagara Falls 
and Oswego Falls, until St. Hiawatha 
released the old Huron Wyandotte 



Notes 525 

and Erie Turtles. A jargon upheaval 
followed and the ancient Cambrian 
Sea receded south and west. Hia- 
watha^ then bade the Six Nations of 
the Confederacy march down the 
Valley of Leaping, Laughing Waters 
until they met their enemies — the 
Wappanachki Men of Great Unami 
— at Chescodonta, the site of Albany 
Capitol on the Mahicansac River, 
now known as Hudson River. Here 
the Hoosac Bears of the Abenakis 
Democracy and the Mohawk Bears 
of the Iroquois Confederacy fought 
for their right to hang their kettles 
and kindle their national council-fires 
until dispersed by the invading 
Christian armies between 161 5 and 
1815. 

II 

[Pages 121, 130] 

LIEUT. JOHN CATLIN'S LETTERS ABOUT FORT MASSACHUSETTS 

SUPPLIES^ 

Fort Massachusetts. 
Augt ye 3, 1745. 

Hond Sir These are to informe that I have perseuant to your desire ben 
Down to ye Duch and in the first place made up a Counts with Mr Vanasee & 
find deu to him 2-4-6 in there money he hath disposed of but tow hids and the 
tallow Sir I pos to informe you the Surcomstances we are in I carried With me 
258 lb Weight of Pork and found ye Stores thirtee pounds of Beef and Brad to 
last to ye 22 of July I found three Skipel of flour in the Stores and sence found 
Whare Bardwell had brought 20 Skipel more we have fetched up 17 all Ready 
Sir I find that the Rum hath ben very Slipry trade but how much hath ben 
Sold to perticulr men I Cant yet tel. Sir the ox we kild on ye 29 July the 
Weight 475 lb the quantity of Pork that Bardwell Spake of I have ben to see 



' Longfellow's iJiowaZ/m of the Iro- (Holder of the Heavens— Huron 
quois, similar to Bryant's OnetJio in Turtles.) 

his Legends of the Delawares and (Master of the lightning-arrows of 
Mahicans. the sky of Delaware Turtles.) 

* Perry, Origins in Williamstown, pp. 109, no, 113. 



526 The Hoosac V^alley 

and find that thare is about 400 lb weight Which is the Whol I can Sight of att 
preasant the price three pence half peny per pound Mr Vanness will let me 
have 800 lb Weight in December att the same price further I have tried the 
best of my skill to git Wheat and shall now Let you know how I can have it Mr 
Vanness demands 29 per Skipel he giting it ground & delivering it att his house 
the pay may be made to his Son att New York in Rum or any other att the 
markit price, further Mr Hawks att the firt house will Let me have one 100 
lb skipel of old Wheat att 2 s 6 d per skipel and Will git it ground and brought 
to his house a mile nier to us his pay must be in mony Saveing 2 pare of stock- 
ings and 2 pare of Shoes: Sir I now Wait for your orders which to take the 
last Whet mentioned is Chepist but thare is no man that Can Supply in all we 
want like Vanness; Sir the price of Rum I Cant yet know but in a fornits time 
Vanase Son will be up from New York and he will then let me know, the 
Want of money oblidges me to stand with my finger in my mouth ware the 
money here things might be had much chepier Plese to send Bardwell as soun 
as possiable for the Care of the work att the fort and giting the provisions I 
find is hard Sir there id difficulty Respecting ye Wheat that Bardwell Bought 
f orsbury sayeth that he was to take the wheat before it was ground and Charges 
3 pence per Bushil for giting it ground & brought to his house Salt cant be had 
on this side of Albany and brought one horse Sir we are in healt & yours att 
command 

John Catlin 2nd. 



Fort Massachusetts. 
Augt ye 5. 1745. 

Sir Since I wrote the account of my procedings consarning the wheat Mr. 
Vanness has been with me, and tels me that if you will take all the wheat you 
want of him that he will take our money and the same price as mentioned 
before. Sir, I have this day a large family from the Duch, and one man offers 
me whete for 2 :5 per skipel ither one or 200 skipel to be delivered in flower at 
the first house (undoubtedly Van Derrick's house a mile south of Peters- 
burgh Junction). Another of them will let me enough to pay for a sute 
of broad cloth for 2 : 6 per skipel to be delivered at the same house in 
flower. 

As good care of the beare hath been taken as if your honour were here, bot 
for the want of salt I feare some of it will spile. One skipel of salt is the howle 
we can git till we go to Albany for it. 

We are informed by an Indian from Crown Point that one of the sculks that 
kiled Phips at the greate meadow received his death wound and died att 
Crown Point. We are all well and in good spirits, and make tho we scout 
every day no discovery att present. 

Sir, I am yours to serve 

John Catlin 2D. 



Notes 



527 



III 

[Page 130] 
FIRST MUSTER-ROLL OF FORT MASSACHUSETTS' 



A Muster Roll of the Company in 
Command of Ephraim Williams, 
1745, TO June 9, 1746 



His Majesty's Service under the 
Jun'r, Captain, Viz., December 10, 



Jonathan Bridgman 


Cent'l 


Dec 


'no 


June 9 


Moses Scott 


it 




a 


11 


John Perry 


i< 




11 


It 


Eben'r Dickinson 


14 




It 


Feb. 28 


John Danelson 


« 




It 


'* 


Elijah Graves 


it 




It 


June 9 


Samuel Goodman 


« 




44 


ii 


Joseph Kellogg 


l< 




44 


tt 


Aaron Kidder 


U 




44 


(( 


Zebulon AUin 


U 




44 


n 


Nath'l Ranger 


n 




44 


n 


Jonathan Stone 


u 




44 


Feb. 27 


John Guiford 


« 




(4 


June 9 


Stephen Stow 


« 




44 


n 


Daniel Smead 


« 




44 


ti 


Samuel Taylor 


« 




« 


Feb. II 


David Warner 


i( 




44 


Feb. 24 


Luke Smith 


f< 




4< 


Feb. 20 


Elear Hawks, Jun'r 


<l 


Feb 


. 21 


June 9 


Gad Corse 


It 


Dec 


. ID 


Feb. 24 


Nathaniel Brooks 


<< 


April 15 


June 9 


Connewoon Hoondeloo 


<l 


Dec 


. ID 


Feb. 24 


Eben'r Miller, Jun'r 


l< 




it 


tt 


Gershorm Hawks 


14 


Feb 


. 20 


June 9 


John Mighills 


44 


Dec 


. 10 


11 


Moses Adams 


44 








Joseph Petty 


14 






Feb. 15 


Patrick Ray 


44 






June 9 


Amos Stiles 


44 








Barnard Wilds 


44 






(( 


Jedidiah Winehall 


44 






Feb. 15 


Aaron Ferry 


(1 






it 


Parker Pease 


44 






Feb. 26 


Thomas Miller 


41 






i i 



'Perry, Origins in Williams town, p. 117. 



528 



The Hoosac Valley 



Abner Aldrich 
Ezekiel Foster 
John Cochran 
Thomas Foot 
John Newton 
Richard Wallis 
John Conally 
Samuel John 



snt'l 


Dec. 


10 


June 7 




ii 




June 9 




(t 




n 




ii 




Jan. 30 




H 




Mar. 30 




Mar. 


31 


June 9 




Dec. 


10 


Feb. 27 




It 




June 9 



IV 



[Page 144] 

AN ACCOUNT OF THE COMPANY IN HIS MAJESTY'S SERVICE 
UNDER THE COMMAND OF SERGT. JOHN HAWKS, WHO 
WERE TAKEN WITH HIM AT FORT MASSACHUSETTS, 
AUG. 20, 1746' 











Weeks 


Per 
Month 




Rank 


Residence Deceased 


Returned and 
Days 


John Hawks 


Sergt. 


Deerfield Aug. 23, 1747 52 5 


33/s. 


John Norton 


Chaplain 


Line of Forts 


It t ( ii an 


I i 


Stephen Scott 


Soldier 


Sunderland Aug. 26, 1747 53 i 


I i 


David Warren 






tt 


ti ii li nil 


11 


John Smead Sen. 






Pequog Aug. 31. 1 747 53 6 


it 


John Smead Jun. 






" Deceased Apr. 7,1747 330 


n 


Daniel Smead 






May 13, 1747 38 I 


n 


John Perry 






Fall Town Aug. 26, 1747 53 i 


tt 


Moses Scott 






ti 


it ii It 11 n 


11 


Joseph Scott 






Hatfield Sept. 27, 1747 575 


n 


Nathaniel Ames 






Marlborough Died Nov. 17, 1746 12 6 


li 


Josiah Read 






Rehoboth " Aug. 21, 1746 2 


11 


Samuel Lovatt 






Mendon " Jan. 23, 1747 22 3 


11 


Samuel Goodman 






Hadley " Mar. 21, 1747 30 4 


1 1 


Amos Pratt 






Westborough " 


A.pr. 12, 1747 33 5 


I i 


Nathaniel Hitchcock ' 




Springfield " J 


May 22, 1747 39 3 


'* 


Jacob Sheppard 


< 




Westboro " May 30, 1747 40 4 


1 1 


Phineas Forbush 


< 




July 16, 1747 47 2 


li 


Jonathan Bridgman ' 




Sunderland " July 21, 1747 48 


li 


John Aldrich 


< 




Mendon (Left sick) 






Pd. by the 
Treasurer 






Since 
■ returned but can 
the time. 




Benjamin Simonds " 
Pd. 


Ware River (Left sick 
at ye hos- 


t say 




pital) J 
in Williamstown, pp. 187-188. 






' Perry, Origins 





Notes 529 

Hampshire SS. Deerfield, Sept. 19, 1749. 
Then John Hawks personally appearing made oath that the preceding roll 
contains an account of the men taken with him at Fort Massachusetts, Aug. 20, 

1746, and also an account of their decease, and return to their several homes. 

Before William Williams, Just. Pads. 

The following women and their children taken captive at Fort Massa- 
chusetts died as follows': 

Miriam Scott, wife of Moses Scott Died Dec. 11, 1746 

Rebecca Perry, wife of John Perry " Dec. 23, 1746 

Moses Scott (two years old), son of Moses Scott " Feb. 11, 1747 

Mary Smead, wife of John Smead, Sr. " Mar. 29, 1747 
Captivity Smead (9 months old), daughter of 

John Smead, Sr. " May 17, 1747 

The surviving captives^ of Fort Massachusetts returned to Boston, August 16, 

1747, according to Rev. John Norton's Journal, ^ pubHshed under the title. 
The Redeemed Captive, by the printer, Daniel Fowle, Queen Street, Boston, in 

1748, Gen. E. Hoyt of Deerfield in preparing his Antiquarian Researches in 
1824 quoted from Norton's Journal. General Hoyt died in 1850 and Norton's 
Journal passed down to the Pomeroy family and all traces of the MS. are now 
lost. These were the redeemed captives: 

vSergt. John Hawks Resided in Deerfield until death in 1784. 

Rev. John Norton " " East Hampton, Ct., until death in 1778. 

Stephen Scott 

David Warren 

John Perry " " Putney, Vt., where he in company with 

Philip Alexander and Michael Gilson built 

Fort Putney. 
Joseph Scott 
John Aldrich 
Moses Scott 

Benjamin Simonds " " Williamstown until death in 1807. 

John Smead, Sr. " " Pequog (Athol) until death Oct.. 1747. 

Mary vSmead ") 

Elihu Smead > Children of John Smead, Sr. 
Simon Smea ' J 
Ebenezer Scott Son of Moses Scott. 



' Perry, Origins in Williamstown, pp. 179-185. 

= lb., p. 189. 

i lb., pp. 124-185. 



530 



The Hoosac Valley 



V 



[Page 144] 

RECRUITING MUSTER ROLL OF GARRISON SOLDIERS OF FORT 
MASSACHUSETTS, UNDER THE COMMAND OF CAPT. 
EPHRAIM WILLIAMS, AUGUST 20, 1746, MANY OF WHOM 
SERVED IN THE SECOND FORT IN 1747.' 



Ephraim Williams, Jr. 


Capt. 


Stockbridge 


Elisha Hawley 


Lieut. 


Northampton 


Daniel Severance 


Lieut. 


Fawl Town 


Caleb Chapin 


Sergt. 


Fawl Town 


Elisha Chapin 


Sergt. 


Springfield 


Nathaniel Eustis 


Sergt. 


Goare 


Adonijah Atherton 


Sergt. 


Deerfield 


Ebenezer Gould 


Sergt. , 


Chelmsford 


Charles Parmeter 


Sergt. 


Sudbury 


Jonathan Stone 


Sergt. 


Leicester 


Abraham Bass 


Sergt. 


Worcester 


John Hooker 


Gunner 


Hatfield 


Richard Treat 


Chaplain 


Shefl&eld 


Phineas Nevers 


Surgeon 


Deerfield 


Isaac Wyman 


Clerk 


Woburn 


Ebenezer Reed 


Cent. 


Simsbury 


Barnard Wilds 






Rodetown 


Edmond Town 






Framingham 


John Harris 






London 


Thomas Waubun 






Sherburn 


Micah Harrington 






Western 


Benj'n Gould 






Woburn 


WiUiam Williston 






Rehoboth 


Esack Johnson 






Rehoboth 


Charles Wintor 






Oxbridge 


James Hathon 






Ireland 


Richard Staudley 






Loudon 


Abner Robarts 






Sutton 


Jonathan Barren 






Westfield 


Timothy HoUen 


r j 




Sutton 


Moses Attacks 






Leicester 


John Crofford 






Western 


Daniel Ward 






Upton 


William Sabin 






Brookfield 


Fortu's Taylor 






Leicester 



" Perry, Origins in Williamstown , pp. 213-214. 



Notes 



531 



Silas Pratt 
Charles Coats 
Seth Hudson 
Samuel Abbot 
Ithamar Hcaley 
John Barnard 
John Morison 
John Henry 
John Martin 
Ezekiel Wells 
Samuel Wells 
George Quaquagid 
Thomas George 
Ebenezer Graves 
John Bush 
John Taylor 
Conawoca Delow 
John Harmon 
Nath. Brooks 
Stephen Collier 
Jonathan Ennis 
John Perkins 
Aaron Denio 
Benj'n Hastings 
Benj'n Fassett 
Benj'n Robbarts 



ent. 


Shrewsbury 


n 


Deerfield 


tl 


Marlborough 


11 


Hardwick 


<( 


Rehoboth 


<( 


Waltham 


<l 


Colrain 


(( 


Colrain 


II 


Sudbury 


II 


Rodetown 


II 


Rodetown 


II 


New London 


II 


New London 


it 


Deerfield 


It 


Summers 


II 


Long Island 


II 


Deerfield 


II 


Deerfield 


II 


Deerfield 


II 


Oxford 


II 


Summers 


11 


Summers 


II 


Deerfield 



Westford 



VI 

[Page 148] 

MUSTER ROLL OF THE COMPANY IN HIS MAJESTY'S SERVICE 
UNDER THE COMMAND OF LIEUT. ELISHA HAWLEY. 
DATED, DECEMBER, 1747, TILL MARCH, 1748, AT FORT 
MASSACHUSETTS' 

Elisha Hawley 
John Foster 
Ebenezer Gould 
Oliver Avery 
Oliver Barret 
Jesse Heath 
Jonathan Barron 
Abraham Bass 

' Perry, Origins in Williamstown, pp. 233-234. 



Lieut. 


Northampton 


Sergt. 


Deerfield 


Corp'l 


Chelmsford 


Cent. 


Deerfield 


II 


Dracut 


II 


Woodstock 


tl 


Worcester 



532 



The Hoosac Valley 



Thomas Hooper 
Daniel Ward 
Zachariah Hicks 
Richard Burt 
John Crooks 
Richard Staudley 
Nathaniel Smith 
David Thomson 
Daniel Kinney 
Thomas Blodget 
Isaac Wyman 
Nathaniel Hunt 
EHseus Barron 
Joseph Wilson 
John Corey 
James Smith 
Jonathan Dutton 
Joseph Washburn 
Edward Brooks 
Fortunatus Taylor 
Amasa Cranson 
Benjamin Fairbank 
William McClallan 
Silas Pratt 
Abner Robards 
Moses Peter Attucks 
John Crofford 
Samuel Bowman 
Abraham Peck 
Hezekiah Wood 
William Sabins 
John Morse 
Ceasar Negro 
Thomas Walkup 
Joseph Bates 



Cent. 












<< 
<< 



Mendon 

Shrewsbury 

Sutton 

Kingston 

Marlborough 

Woburn 

Marlborough 

Bilerica 

Sutton 

Chelmsford 

Woburn 

Dracut 

Dracut 

Bilerica 

New Bedford? 

Leicester 

Bilerica 



Western 

Shrewsbury 

Shrewsbury 

Dudley 

Worcester 

Worcester 

Leicester 

Worcester 

Worcester 



(Negro slave of John White') 



Brookfield 
Woodstock 



(Slave of Hezekiah Ward') 



Dracut 



' Slavery aboHshed in Massachusetts, 1 780-1 781. 



i 



i 



Notes 533 

VII 

[Page 148] 

MUSTER ROLL OF THE COMPANY IN HIS MAJESTY'S SERVICE 
UNDER THE COMMAND OF CAPT. EPHRAIM WILLIAMS, 
JUN'R, AT FORT MASSACHUSETTS. DATED MARCH TO 
DECEMBER 11, 1749' 



Ephraim Williams, Jun' 


r Capt. 


John Henry ( 


Cer 


Elisha Hawley 


Lieut. 


John Harmon 


<i 


Elisha Chapin 


Sergt. 


Benja Hastings 


<< 


Caleb Chapin 


Sergt. 


John Morrison 


<i 


Nathaniel Eustis 


Sergt. 


Silas Pratt 


<i 


Charles Pannetor 


Corpl. 


Benja Roberts 


« 


Jonathan Stone 


Corpl. 


Abner Roberts 


i< 


Abraham Bass 


Corpl. 


Ebenezer Reed (Read?) 


<< 


Isaac Wyman 


Clerk 


James Smith 


<( 


John Hooker 


Gun'r. 


Edmond Town 


II 


Phineas Nevers 


Surge. 


Fortunatus Taylor 


41 


Seth Hudson 


Surge. 


John Taylor 


11 


Oliver Avery 


Cent. 


Daniel Ward 


II 


Moses Peter Attucks 


i( 


William Williston 


II 


(Negro slave of John White) 


Samuel Wells 


II 


Jonathan Barron 


Cent. 


Simeon Wells 


tt 


John Bush 


tt 


Samuel Calhoun (Calhoon) 


tt 


Nathan'l Brooks 


n 


Daniel Graves 


tt 


John Crofford (Crawford?) " 


Nath. Harvey 


tt 


Charles Coats 




Barnard Wiles (Barnabas 


tt 


William Sanderson 




Niles or Willis?) 




Charles Denio 




Samuel Taylor 


« 


Jonathan Evans 




Leml Avery 


II 


Ebenezer Graves 




Ceasar Negro (Slave of 


II 


Micah Harrington 




Hezekiah Ward) 




James Hathorn (Haw- 




Zacha. Hicks 


<( 


thorne?) 




Moses Tenney 


II 


Timothy Holton 




Benja Tilton" 


l< 


Ithemer Healy 









' Perry, Origins in Williamstown, pp. 231-232. 

* The names: Calhoun, Morrison, Denio, Crawford, Henry, Healey, Tilton, 
etc., are of Scotch-Irish origin. Several of the first proprietors of Hoosac and 
Walloomsac towns. 



534 



The Hoosac Valley 



VIII 

[Page 148] 

MUSTER ROLLS OF THE COMPANIES IN HIS MAJESTY'S 
SERVICE OF FORTS MASSACHUSETTS, SHIRLEY, AND 
PELHAM, UNDER THE COMMAND OF CAPT. EPHRAIM 
WILLIAMS, JUNT<. DATED DECEMBER 11, 1749-JUNE 3, 1750' 



Fort Massachusetts 

Capt. 
Lieut. 
Clerk 
Surgeon 



Ephraim Williams 
Elisha Hawley 
Isaac Wyman 
Seth Hudson 

Oliver Avery Cent* 

Samuel Avery 
Abraham Bass 
Ebenezer Graves 
John Hooker 
Micah Harrington 
John Harmon 
Silas Pratt 
Abner Robbarts 
Ebenezer Reed 
John Taylor 
William Williston 
Samuel Taylor 
Samuel Calhoun 
Nathaniel Harvey 
Ezekiel Foster 
Moses Tenny 
(Foster was "omitted in my last") 
(Tenny do. "on Captain Williams 
Roll ") 



Lieut. 



Fort Shirley 

William Lyman 

Peter Bovee (A Dutch- 
man from Kriegger 
Colony) Cent'. 

Gershom Hawks (Nephew 
of Sergt. John Hawks) " 

John Pannell 

Samuel Stebbins " 

Fort Pelham 

Joseph Allen (Joseph 
Allen of Northampton 
was father of "Fighting 
Parson" Thomas Allen 
of Pittsfield, a cousin of 
Ethan Allen of Benning- 
ton) Sergt. 

Joshua Hawks Cent'. 

Joshua Wells 

Daniel Donnilson " 

William Stevens " 



1 



IX 

[Page 150] 

MUSTER ROLL OF THE COMPANY IN HIS MAJESTY'S SERVICE 
UNDER THE COMMAND OF CAPT. EPHRAIM WILLIAMS, 
JUN'R, AT FORT MASSACHUSETTS. DATED JUNE 4, 1750- 
JANUARY 13, 1 75 1' 



Ephraim Williams Capt. Elisha Hawley 

' Perry, Origins in Williamstown, p. 234. 
' Ibid, p. 236. 



Lieut. 



Notes 535 



Oliver Avery Cent. Seth Hudson Cent. 

Lemuel Avery " Elisha Chapin ' " 

Abraham Bass " Abner Roberts " 

Samuel Calhoun " Samuel Taylor " 

Ezekiel Foster " Isaac Wyman " 

Ebenezer Graves " Paul Langdon " 

Micah Harrington " Aaron Van Horn( Omitted 

Nathaniel Harvey " on my Roll Ending 1746) " 

Boston, Jan. 13, 1751. Errors Excepted. 
Per Ephraim Williams. 

X 

[Pages 128, 150] 

CAPT. EPHRAIM WILLIAMS, JR.'S LETTER' 

Addressed to the Hon. Spencer Phips Esq'r, — Lieut.-Governor and 
Commander-in-Chief of His Majesty's Province of Massachusetts 

Bay at Cambridge. 

Fort Massachusetts, Sept. 3, 1751. 
May it plese your Honour 

Last week came to ye fort 8 Scattecook Indians, who told me the land was 
theirs, and that the English had no Business to Settle it Untill such times as 
they had purchased of them. They further said yt when we began to Build 
the first Fort, they told the English they must not Build the Fort Except they 
would pay them for the land, and that the Commandr had promist them pay, 
but the English had not been as good as their word. In answer I told them as 
to what promises they had had, I was not Accountable, but be they what they 
would, I did not Suppose they were binding Upon Us now, for it was well 
known that their tribe was in the French Interest the last war, and that a num- 
ber of them assisted in taking the Fort and that we now held the land by Right 
of Conquest. 

They said it was true a number of ye tribe was gone to Canada but they were 
not the proper owners of the land. I told them if those Indians were here they 
would challenge the land as they now did, and denie that ever they were in the 
French interest, that if the English were disposed to purchase the land it was 
Impossible to know who were the right owners, notwithstanding I would 
inform the gov' and Doubted not but he would lay the matter before the 
Court, but then I must know how much land they called theirs, and what 
their price was; they told me it was theirs as far South as the head of all 
streams that Emtied into Hoosuck River, (on the Ashawaghsac in Lanesboro 
and Green River in Hancock) and their price was £800 ye York money. I told 
them I thought the price was anough, and that the Province would not give 

' Perry, Origins in Williamstown, pp. 243-244. 



536 The Hoosac Valley 

it. there is no doubt with me but yt the French are at the bottom of all 
this, a part of this tribe is now at Canada, and in order to git the Rest they 
have set a price for the land they know we never will comply with. Last 
night came to the Fort 2 French men and one English Captive whose name is 
John Carter he was taken when Deerfield was Destroyed (1704) he is now 
maried in Canada and has a family there: the French mens mother is an Eng- 
lish Captive taken at the same time she was old Mr Thomas French's Daughter, 
they had a pass from the gove° of Canada, and are agoing to see yr Relations 
as they say; but if the truth was known I believe they are Sent for 
Spies. 

I askt them what news; they said there was 14 ships from France several of 
which were men of war, but they had brought any news remarkable I then 
Inquired whether the Indians want gone to war Upon our frontiers in the 
Eastern Country they said No, they had done now. 

Concerning the Deer your Hon' spoke to em about. I have done all that 
has been in my power to serve you though to little purpose. I have been 20 
miles west of Albany but could not git any. 

I should have Informed you Sooner but had not an opportunity except I 
should have sent your Honour an Express which I dont Remember was your 
Desire 

I am S' your Hon'' most obedient Humble Serv' 

Eph. Williams Junr. 

Governor Phips. 

(endorsed) 

In the House of Representatives, Jan. 23, 1752. Read and Voted that Col. 
Lydius of the City of Albany together with the within named Capt. Ephraim 
Williams be desired to make a thorough Enquiry respecting the Indian Title to 
the said lands, whether they belong to said Scauticook Indians or other Indians 
living near the Hudson's River, or at Stockbridge — And report thereon to this 
Court as soon as may be. 

XI 

[Page 152] 

MUSTER ROLL OF THE COMPANY IN HIS MAJESTY'S SERVICE 
UNDER THE COMMAND OF CAPT. ELISHA CHAPIN OF FORT 
MASSACHUSETTS. DATED, JUNE 1752- JUNE 1753' 

Elisha Chapin Capt. Silas Pratt Cen'tl 

Isaac Wyman Serg't Samuel Taylor 

Abraham Bass Cent'l Peter Boovee " 



Perry, Origins in Williamstown, pp. 249. 



Notes 



537 



Gad Chapin 


Cent'l 


Christopher Tyler 


Ezekiel Foster 


It 


Thomas Train 


John Crawford 


i< 


Archibal Panil (of Fort 


Samuel Calhoun 


(< 


Shirley) 


John Adams 


« 


George Hall (of Fort 


Elijah Brown 


<i 


Pelham) " 


John Chamberlin 


« 





Cent'l 



XII 



[Page 152] 

LAST MUSTER ROLL IN HIS MAJESTY'S SERVICE UNDER THE 
COMMAND OF CAPT. EPHRAIM WILLIAMS, JUN'R, OF FORT 
MASSACHUSETTS. DATED, SEPTEMBER, 1754-MARCH, 1755' 



Ephraim Williams 
Isaac Wyman 
Samuel Taylor 
Edmond Town 
Gad Chapin 
Oliver Avery 
Sam'l Calhoun 
Sam'l Catlin 
John Taylor 
Elisha Higgins 
Benja King 
George Wilson 
John Rosher 
Tyrus Pratt 
Noah Pratt 
Abraham Bass 
Jeremi'h Chapin 
John Mills 
Enoch Chapin 
Silas Pratt 
Ezekiel Foster 



Capt. 

Lieut. 

Sergt. 

Sergt. 

Sergt. 

Corp 'I 

Corp'l 

Cent. 



« 
It 
<i 
« 
« 



John Crofford 
John Bowin 
Thomas Trail (Train?) 
John Herrold 
Micha Harrington 
Ezra Parker 
John Balsh 
Josiah Goodwish 
Nath. Nickells 
John Gray 
Seth Hudson 
Mayhew Daggitt 
Gideon Warren 
Elisha Sheldon 
Simeon Crawford 
John Meacham 
Derrick Webb 
Benja. Simonds 
Gad Corse 
Henry Stiles 



Cent. 



« 
« 



« 
<i 

n 
n 
« 
« 



Captain Williams took oath of correctness of Muster Roll at Boston, 
June 13, 1755. 



' Perry, Origins in Williamstown, p. 266. 



538 



The Hoosac Valley 



XIII 

[Page 153] 

MUSTER ROLL OF THE COMPANY IN HIS MAJESTY'S SER- 
VICE UNDER CAPT. ISAAC WYMAN, IN COMMAND OF 
FORT MASSACHUSETTS DURING COL. EPHRAIM WIL- 
LIAMS'S MARCH TO LAKE GEORGE. DATED, JULY, 1755' 



X^XX XJ.*XV_J VJ i.VXi l.XV\_XJ 

Isaac Wyman 


L X V_/ XJi XXii 

Capt. 


Joseph Lovell Cen 


Samuel Taylor 


Sergt. 


Josiah Sod wick " 


Edmond Town 


Sergt. 


Pall Rice 


Salah Barnard 


Ens. 


John Crawford " 


Elisha Chapin 


Clerk 


John Calhoun (Illegible)? " 


Ebenzr Graves 


Cent. 


Jabiz Warren " 


John Wells 


<i 


Derick Webb " 


Tyrus Pratt 


<< 


Benj'n vSimonds " 


Thorns Train 


<< 


Seth Hudson " 


Gad Corse 


<( 


Gidan Warren " 


John Van Norman 




Joseph Brush " 


(A Dutchman from 




John Holdbroock " 


Kriegger Colony) 


ti 


Daniel Miller " 


Elijah Sheldon 


<< 


Joseph Richards " 


Benjn King 


« 


Samel Hudson " 


George Wilson 


ti 


Isaac Searles " 


Noah Pratt 


n 


William Barron " 


Abram Bass 


<< 


Simon Morgan " 


Enoch Chapin 


a 


Ezekl Day 


Silas Pratt 


<< 


Isaac Morgan " 


Adington Gardner 


ti 


Levy Eley " 


Isaac Bond 


it 


Joseph Bigelow (Deserted) 



The above Muster Roll was forwarded to Col. Ephraim Williams, it is 
believed, by Sergt. Edmond Town, who was a messenger or express between 
Fort Massachusetts and Colonel Williams's Greenbush encampment until his 
march to Lake George. 

XIV 

[Pages 179, 192] 
MUSTER ROLL OF THE COMPANY OF MUSKET MEN, CON- 
TAINING 59 ENGLISH HOOSAC MINUTE MEN UNDER CAPT. 
SAMUEL SLOAN, WHO MARCHED WITH GENERAL ARNOLD'S 
REGIMENT AGAINST QUEBEC, 1775-1776.= 
Samuel Sloan Capt. WiUiamstown On command to Quebec 

Zebediah Sabin ist Lieut. 

Enos Parker 2d Lieut. E. Hoosuck 

' Perry, Origins in WiUiamstown, p. 309. 
■* Perry, WiUiamstown an4 WiUio-ms CoUege, pp. 39-40. 



Notes 



539 



Asaph Cook 
David Johnson 
Bartholomew Woodcock 
Alexander Sloan 
Barachiah Johnson 
Thaddeus Munson 
William Mayhew 
James McMaster 
Charles King 
Ichabod Parker 
Ezra Church 
William Spencer 
Jesse Jewell 
Edward Bailey 
Daniel Johnson 
Charles Sabin 
Foard Bass 
James Andrews 
David Parkhill 
Elijah Flynt 
Starling Daniels 
Joshua Smedley 
Jonathan Hall 
Henry Wilcox 
Nathaniel Parker 
Samuel Pettebone 
William Bennett 
Jerc. Osburn 
Anthony Lamb 
Eliphalet White 
Benjamin Dibble 
Samuel Wilcox 
Israel Mead 
William Bates 
Joites Barns 
Andrew Hinman 
Samuel Clark 
Thomas Whitney 
Isaiah Honeywell 
John Hall 
Joseph Lawrence 
Thomas Pall 
Seth Pettebone 
Jeremiah Collins 



Sergt. 



Corp. 



Drummer 
Soldier 



E. Hoosuck 

Williamstown On command to Quebec 



Lanesborough 

New Providence 

Williamstown 

Sheffield 

E. Hoosuck 

Williamstown 



<< << 



E. Hoosuck 

Lanesborough 

Williamstown 

E. Hoosuck 
Williamstown 



E. Hoosuck 
Lanesborough 
E. Hoosuck 
Williamstown 

li 

E. Hoosuck 
it ti 

Williamstown 

New Ashford 
11 11 

E. Hoosuck 
Lanesborough 



Gageborough 
New Providence 
Lanesborough 
New Providence 



«< 11 



<( II 



540 



The Hoosac Valley 



^^^ James Holden 
^doses Rich 
Ebenezer Hutchinson 
Timothy Sherwood 
WiUiam Young 
Absalom Baker 
Michael Watkins 
Duncan Dunn 
William Popkins 
Alexander Spencer 
Alexander Spencer, Jr. 
Ahasuel Turret 



Soldier 



E. Hoosuck 
Williamstown 






New Providence 
E. Hoosuck 
Boston 
Williamstown 



In the train i July. 
Discharged i Oct. 
On command to Quebec 
Discharged 20 Sept. 



XV 



[Page 277] 

THE GREEN MOUNTAIN SETTLERS' PETITION' 

To THE King's Most Excellent Majesty. 

The humble petition of the several subscribers hereto, your majesty's most 
loyal subjects, sheweth to your majesty: 

That we obtained at considerable expense of our majesty's governor of 
the Province of New Hampshire, grants and patents for more than 1 00 town- 
ships in the western parts of the said supposed province; and being about to 
settle same many of us, and others of us, having actually planted ourselves on 
the same, were disagreeably surprised and prevented from going on with the 
further intended settlements, by the news of its having been determined by 
your majesty in council that those lands were within the province of N. Y. and 
by a proclamation issued by Lieut. -Gov. Golden in consequence thereof, for- 
bidding any further settlement until patents of confirmation should be obtained 
from the governor of N. Y. Whereupon we applied to the governor of said 
province of N. Y. to have the same lands confirmed to us in the same manner as 
they had been at first granted to us by the governor of said N. H. ; when, to our 
utter astonishment, we found the same could not be done without our paying 
as fees of office for the same at the rate of 25 pounds New York money, equal 
to about 14 pounds sterling, for every 1000 acres of said lands, amounting to 
about 330 pounds sterling at a medium, for each of said townships, and which 
will amount in the whole to about 33,000 pounds sterling, besides a quit rent 
of two shillings and sixpence sterling for every hundred acres of said lands; and 
which being utterly unable to do and preform, we find ourselves reduced to the 
sad necessity of losing all our past expense and advancements; and many of us 
being so reduced to absolute poverty and want, having expended our all in 
making said settlements. 

' Doc. Hist. N. Y., iv., 1027. 



Notes 541 

Whereupon your petitioners beg leave most humbly to observe : 

I — That when we applied for and obtained said grants of said lands, 
the same were and had been at all times fully understood and reported to lie 
and be within the said province of N. H., and were within the power of the 
governor of that province to grant; so that your petitioners humbly hope they 
are equitably entitled to a confirmation of the said grants to them. 

II — The said grants were made and received on the moderate terms of 
your petitioner's paying as a quit rent one shilling only, proclamation money, 
equal to nine pence sterling per hundred acres; and which induced us to under- 
take to settle said townships throughout and thereby to form a full and com- 
pacted country of people, whereas the imposing the said two shillings and six 
pence sterling per hundred acres will occasion all the more rough and unprofit- 
able parts of said lands not to be taken up; but pitches, and the more valuable 
parcels only to be laid out, to the utter preventing the full and proper settle- 
ment of said country, and in the whole to the lessening your majesty's revenue. 

Ill — Your humble petitioners conceive, that the insisting to have large 
and very exorbitant fees of office to arise and be computed upon every thousand 
acres in every township of six or perhaps more miles square, and that when one 
patent, one seal and one step only of every kind, towards the completing such 
patents of confirmation respectively is necessary, is without all reasonable and 
equitable foundation, and must and will necessarily terminate in totally pre- 
venting your petitioners obtaining the said lands, and so the same will fall into 
the hands of the rich, to be taken up, the more valuable parts only as aforesaid, 
and those perhaps not entered upon and settled for many years to come; while 
your petitioners with their numerous and helpless families, will be obliged to 
wander far and wide to find where to plant themselves down, so as to be able to 
live. 

Whereupon your petitioners most humbly pray and earnestly hope that your 
majesty will be graciously pleased to take their distressed state and condi- 
tion into your royall consideration, and order that we have our said lands 
confirmed and aquitted to us on such reasonable terms, and in such way and 
manner as your majesty shall think fit. 

Further, we beg leave to say, that if it might be consistent with your 
majesty's royal pleasure, we shall esteem it a very great favor and happiness, 
to have said townships put and continued under the jurisdiction of the said 
province of N. H. ; as at first, as every emolument and convenience both public 
and private, are in your petitioners' humble opinion clearly and strongly on the 
side of such connection with the said N. H. province. All which favors, or 
such and so many of them as to your majesty shall seem meet to grant, we 
humble ask; or that your majesty will in some other way, grant relief to your 
petitioners; and they, as in duty bound shall ever pray. 

Signed and Dated in New England, Nov. 1766; and in the seventh year of 
his majesty's reign. 



542 The Hoosac Valley 

The original manuscript Petition, with most of the settlers' signa- 
tures, was found among the papers of WilHam Samuel Johnson, attorney of 
Samuel Robinson, Sr. It is now deposited in the office of the Secretary of 
State at Montpelier, Vt. The MS. of the Diary of Mr. Johnson, while in 
Lo idon with Samuel Robinson, descended to his grandson, WilHam Samuel 
Johnson, of Stratford, Conn. 

XVI 

[Page 277] 

REBUKE OF THE KING TO GOVERNOR MOORE 
Lord Shelburne's Letter' 

White Hall, April 11, 1767. 

Sir: Two petitions having been most humbly presented to the king in 
council, one by the incorporated society for the propagation of the gospel, and 
the other by Samuel Robinson, of Bennington, in behalf of himself and more 
than one thousand other grantees of lands on the west side of Connecticut 
river, under certain grants issued by Benning Wentworth, Esq., Governor of 
New Hampshire, and preparing for redress in several very great grievances 
therein set forth, lest there should be any further proceedings in this matter 
till such time as the council shall have examined into the grounds of it, I am to 
signify to you his majesty's commands that you make no new grants of those 
lands, and that you do not molest any person in quiet possession of his grant, 
who can produce good and valid deeds for such grant under the seal of the 
province of New Hampshire until you receive further orders respecting them. 

In my letter of the nth of Dec. I was very explicit upon the point former 
grants. You are therein directed to take care that the inhabitants lying 
westward of the line reported by the board of trade as the boundary of the two 
provinces be not molested on account of territorial differences, or disputed 
jursidiction for ivhatever province the settlers may be found to belong to, it 
should make no difference to their property, provided that their titles to their 
lands should be found good in other respects, or that they have long been in the 
uninterrupted possession of them. 

His majesty's intentions are so clearly expressed to you in the above para- 
graph, that I cannot doubt of your having immediately upon receipt of it 
removed any cause of those complaints which the petitioners set forth. If not, 
it is the King's express command that it may be done without the smallest 
delay. The power of granting lands was vested in the governors of the colony, 
originally for the purpose of accommodating, not distressing settlers, especially 
the poor and industrious. Any perversion of that power, therefore, must be 
highly derogatory, both from the dignity of their stations and from the dis- 

' Doc. Hist. N. Y., iv., 589. 



Notes 543 

interested character which a governor ought to support, and which his majesty 
expects from every person honoured with his commission. The unreasonable- 
ness of obhging a very large tract of country to pay a second time the immense 
sum of 33,000 pounds in fees, according to the allegations of this petition, for 
no other reason tlian its being found necessary to settle the line of boundary 
between the colonies in question, is so unjustifiable that his majesty is not only 
determined to have the strictest inquiry made into the circumstances of the 
charge, but expects the clearest and fullest answer to every part of it. 

I am, etc. 

Shelburne. 
Sir Henry Moore, Bart. 

XVII 

[Page 278] 

TREATY OF THE SETTLERS OF ENGLISH WALLOOMSAC TOWNS 
WITH THE STOCKBRIDGE INDIANS FOR THE SCHAGHTI- 
COKES' HOOSAC HUNTING-GROUNDS' 

Bennington, New Hampshire Grants, 
November 30, 1767. 

Whereas the Stockbridge Indian Tribe, Col. Jacobs and others. Challenge 

twelve or more Townships of land Situate and being On the W>st Line of the 

Province of New Hampshire, as Chartered by Benning Wentworth Esq. 

Governor of s'^ Province, and the s'^ Indian Tribe are Willing and will be 

Ready On the First day of January next to Treat with us or any one of us 

Respecting their Title, and will at that time Likewise appoint a Meeting at 

which meeting They will make it Appear That They are the Sole Owners 

Thereof and have the only Proper and Lawful Right to Sell and Convey the 

Same; and whereas we the Subscribers whose names are hereunto Prefixed, 

being Wilhng and desirous to make Sure to Ourselves and Successors a good 

and Sufficient title to the Interests which we now Possess, and to make such 

Addition or Additions Thereto as vShall be Thought Proper and Conductive to 

our Several Interests 

_ ( Mr. Iedidiah Dewey 1 „„ . 1 tm ^ ^ ^ ^ 

By \ r^ r T- ooT- f- Whome we depute and Elect to Treat 

( Capt. John Fassett & vS. tAY ) 

with s'^ tribe or Such of them as will be necessary to treat with. In order to ye 

procurement of a proper title to Such Land and Lands Lying and being as 

afores'd. In Consideration of all which we Severally Engage For ourselves 

Heirs Ex" and Administrators to pay or Cause To be paid to the s<i Jedidiah, 

John or Stephen the Severall Sum or Sums According to our Proprietorship As 

will Appear by ye Charter afores'd both y^ Sum and Sums which he or they 

may give for s^ Land or Lands and y"^ Cost and Costs Necessarily Arising by 

' Perry, Origins in Williamstown, pp. I56-I57- 



544 The Hoosac Valley 

means of the Procurement of s'' Title and to pay Such Sum or Sums of money 
Unto y« s'' Jedidiah, John or Stephen at Such time and times as he or they 
Shall agree with the s'^ Tribe Indian. Witness Each of our hands, &c. 

The original MS. Treaty was drawn up by Leonard Robinson of Ben- 
nington. The sheet of paper used was written on both sides, signed by 
loi proprietors, residing in Pownal, Bennington, and adjoining Walloomsac 
towns on the New Hampshire Grants. The quaint document is said to be 
deposited in the historical collection of Revolutionary relics in the George 
Wadsworth Robinson Mansion at Bennington Centre, Vt. 



XVIII 

[Pages 296, 300] 

ARNOLD'S BILL OF EXPENSES ' 

The Honorable Provincial Congress of Massachusetts Bay 

To B. Arnold. Dr. 

Disbursements from Cambridge to Ticonderoga 
1775 £ s. d. 

May 4 — To shoeing horses on the road 8 

To dinner, horse keeping &c at Concord 15 3 

To shoeing horse 4s. 6d. ; liquor, 2s. 8d 7 4 

To supper and lodging at Shrewsbury 17 9 

5 — To breakfast &c. at Holden los. lod.; dinners, 3s. 

4d. ; suppers and lodging, 5s. 6d 19 8 

6 — To ferrage at Deerfield, is. 6d. ; breakfast 2s. 2d 3 8 

To shoeing horse, 5s. 5d.; ferrage, is. 4d 6 9 

To cash paid Capt. Oswald at Shrewsbury, expenses. . . 18 17 9 

To cash paid Thomas W. Dickenson, expenses of cattle 6 

To Captain Brown's bill of expence i 4 7 

To dinner and lodging, 4s. 10. ; paid Nehemiah 

Smedley 60s 3 4 10 

7 — To dinner, suppers and lodging 7 8 

8 — To dinner &c 6 

10 — To cash paid Captain Warner, expenses to Crown 

Point 18 

To — of horses 5s. ; paid the Commissary 3s 8 

13 — To cash paid Sergt. Anderson 12 gallons rum for 

people 2 8 

14 — -To ditto paid Mr. Romans for expenses to Albany 

and Hartford 2 16 

' Perry, Williamstown and Williams College, p. 27. 



Notes 545 

£ s. d. 

To ditto paid William Nichols express to Hartford .... 4 4 

18 — To ditto paid Lewis, expenses 6s., baking bread 6s. 4d. . 12 4 

To ditto paid spy for intelligence to St. Johns i 8 

To expenses on the road to St. Johns 10 

To Donihue's bill at St. Johns 2 19 6 

To cash paid Lieut. Lyman's expenses i 6 

To Walson's bills 8s. ; Lyman's bill of expenses 8s. 3d. . 163 
20 — To cash paid Capt. Brown's expenses to Cambridge 

and back 8 18 8 

To ditto paid Capt. Nineham, an Indian Ambassador 

from Stockb ridge to Caunawauga 3 12 

XIX 

[Pages 299, 300] 

ARNOLD'S COMMISSION' 

Massachusetts Committee of Safety, May 3, i775- 

To Benedict Arnold, Esq., Commander of a body of Troops on an Expedition 
to subdue and take possession of the Fort of Ticonderoga. 

Sir: — Confiding in your Judgment, fidelity and Valor, we do by these 
Presents constitute and appoint you Colonel and Commander in Chief over a 
Body of Men not exceeding four hundred, to proceed with all expedition to the 
Western parts of this and the neighboring Colonies, where you are directed to 
enlist those Men and with them forthwith to march to the Fort at Ticonderoga 
and use your best endeavors to reduce the same, taking possession of the 
Cannon, Mortars, Stores, and also the vessel and other Cannon and Stores 
upon the Lake; you are to bring back with you such of the Cannon and 
Mortars, Stores, &c., as you shall judge may be serviceable to the Army here 
(Cambridge), leaving behind what may be necessary to secure the Post with a 
sufficient Garrison. You are to secure suitable Provisions and Stores for the 
Army, and draw upon the Committee of Safety for the amount thereof, and to 
act in every exigence according to your best skill and discretion for the publick 
Interest — for which this shall be your sufficient Warrant. 

Benja Church, Jun'r, 

By Order Chairman Com' tee oj Safety., 

William Cooper, Sec'y. 

' Perry, Williamstown and Williams College, p. 26. 



546 



The Hoosac Valley 



XX 

[Pages 323, 337] 

MUSTER ROLL OF EAST BENNINGTON COMPANY CONTAIN- 
ING 77 NAMES UNDER THE COMMAND OF CAPT. SAMUEL 
ROBINSON, AUG. 16, 1777' 

Soldier 



Samuel Robinson 


Capt. 


Aaron Miller 


Simeon Hatheway 


Lieut. 


John Fay 


William Henry 


Lieut. 


Elijah Fay 


David Fay 


Fifer 


Joseph Fay 


Robert Cochran 


Officer 


John Clark 


Gideon Spencer 


(1 


Jehoshaphat Holmes 


Henry Walbridge 


Soldier 


Moses Rice 


Rufus Branch 


it 


■^ Benjamine Whipple, Jr 


John Larned 


it 


Silas Robinson 


Thomas Abel 


It 


John Weeks 


Nathan Lawrence 


H 


Moses Scott 


Josiah Brush 


it 


Alpheus Hatheway 


Leonard Robinson 


it 


Solomon Walbridge 


Daniel Biddlecome 


It 


Ebenezer Brackett 


Levy Hatheway 


ti 


Jehiel Smith 


Abram Hatheway 


ti 


Asa Branch 


Reuben Colvin 


ii 


Phineas Wright 


Eliphalet Stickney 


a 


John Smith 


Daniel Rude (Rood?) 


tt 


Jesse Belknap 


Benjamine Holmes 


i I 


Silvanus Brown 


James Marivater 


I ( 


John Forbes 


Mr. Alger 


It 


Stephen Williams 


Aminie Fuller 


It 


William Post 


Jonah Brewster 


u 


David Safford 


George Dale 


it 


Jared Post 


John Marble 


tt 


Jeremiah Bingham 


Ephraim Marble 


it 


Samuel Slocum 


Aaron Hubbell 


tt 


Josiah Hurd 


Samuel Safford, Jr. 


ti 


Ezekiel Brewster 


Aaron Smith 


tt 


Solomon Leason 


Ephraim Smith 


it 


Thomas Selden 


Samuel Henry 


tt 


John Rigney 


Edward Henderson 


tt 


Elisha Smith 


Jonathan Haynes 


tt 


Solomon Safford 


Daniel Warner 


it 


Joseph Roe 


Archelans Tupper 


i i 


William Terrill 



' Rev. Isaac Jennings's Memoruih of a Century, p. 201, 1869. 



Notes 



547 



Noah Beach 
Simeon Sears 
David Robinson 



Soldier 



Joseph Safford 
Isaac Webster 



Sold 



ler 



XXI 

[Pages 323, 337] 

MUSTER ROLL OF WEST BENNINGTON COMPANY, CONTAIN- 
ING 78 NAMES, UNDER THE COMMAND OF CAPT. ELIJAH 
DEWEY, AUG. 16, 1777' 



Elijah Dewey 


Capt. 


Ezekial Smith 


vSoldier 


Joseph Rudd 


Lieut. 


Christopher Cluff 


n 


Thomas Jewett 


Lieut. 


Jonathan Parsons 


n 


Nathaniel Fillmore* 


Ensign 


Amos Page 


ti 


Daniel Harmon 


Sergt. 


Samuel Rood 


it 


Thomas Hayner 


Soldier 


Daniel Kingsley 


it 


Jedidiah Merrill 






Joseph Wickwire 


(t 


Jonathan Griswold 






Nathan Clark, Jr. 


it 


Seth Partee 






John Smith 


tl 


Aaron Hayner 






Libbens Armstrong 


li 


Jonathan Hayner, Jr. 






Hezekiah Armstrong 


tt 


Ezekiel Harmon 






Hopestill Armstrong 


It 


Daniel Towslee 






John Kingsley 


n 


Silas Harmon 






Eleazer Hawks 


ti 


Caleb Harmon 






Samuel Tubbs 


tt 


Joshua Harmon 






John Rudd 


ti 


Abner Marble 






Elijah Story 


a 


John Partee 






Benajah Story 


tt 


Joseph Robinson 






Nathaniel Holmes 


it 


John Barnham, Jr.J 






Elanathan Hubbell 


tl 


Shadrack Harris 






Griffin Briggs 


it 


Thomas Henderson 






Elijah Higgins 


1 1 


Roger Ladd 






Ithamar Hibbard^ 


Chaplain 


George Christie 






Cyrus Clark 


Soldier 



I Miss Gertrude Hubbell, a great granddaughter of Capt. Elijah Dewey, after 
a research among family documents of Revolutionary days, discovered the 
muster roll of the West Bennington Company of 1777. It was first published 
in the Bennington Reformer, March 21, 1890, and subsequently issued in 
Melvin H. Robinson's Bemiington Souvenir in 1904. 

* Grandsire of President Millard Fillmore. 

3 Burnham (?) 

"Pastor of First Strict-Separatist Congregational Church of Bennington, 
Hibbard Lot, on western slope of Mt. Anthony, and subsequently the founder 
of the First Church of Hubbardton. Vt. 



548 



The Hoosac Valley 



Joshua Carpenter 
Benajah Hurlburt 
Jesse Field 
Amos Herrick 
Simeon Harmon 
Matthew Clark 
Shadrack Norton 
Stephen Cleveland 
Theophilus Clark 
John Stewart 
Gains Harmon 
Nathaniel Kingsley 
Job Green 
William Aglesworth 
Philemon Wood 



Soldier Samuel Cutler 

" Lemuel Geers 

" Jacob Story 

" Joseph Tinney 

" Edward Corbin 

" Oliver Rice 

" Christopher Brackett 

" Robert Blair 

" David Powers 

" Phineas Still 

" Roswell Moseley' 

" Joseph Willoughby' 

" Samuel Hunt- 

Daniel Clark 

Elishu Clark 



Soldier 



The two muster rolls of the companies under Captains Robinson and Dewey 
have never been published together before this date. 

xxir 

[Pages 342, 346] 

THE FAMOUS RUDD LETTER" 

Bennington August the 26 ad 1777 
Honoured father after my Duty I take this opertunity to Rite you Hoping 
these lines will find you well as through the goodnes of god they leave me and 
my family we meat a great Deal of trouble on the 16 instant my self and 
Brother John was preserved through a very hot battel we kild and took accord- 
ing to the best account we can git about one thousand of the Enemy our loss 
was about thirty or forty we marcht Rite against there brest work with our 
Small armes where they fired with there field peases when they fired upon us 
every half a minit yet they never tought a man with them we drove them out 
of there brest work and took there field peases and presed and kild great num- 
bers of them we lost four or five of my Neighbors twoSniders and two Hornbeck 
the bigger part of Dutch Hosack was in the battel against us they went to the 
Reglers a Day or two before the fight Samuel Anderson a Captain amonst the 
Reglers and was in the battel against us while I was gon my wife and children 
went of and got Down to Williamstown after I got home I went after them and 
found them to landlord Simons I have got them home again my wife was very 

' First names supplied from pay-roll of Capt. Dewey's Company at Ticon- 
deroga, 1776. Vt. Hist. Mag. i., p. 153. 

^ Perry, Williamstown and Williams College, pp. 132-133. 



Notes 549 

much wored out she had four children with her and Selinday was forst to Run 
on foot we soon Expect the Enemy will come upon us again and what I shall 
Dew with my family I know not I would inform you that I Received your 
letter dated August i8 which you tel me you was well which I am glad to hear 
of it I want to com and see you very much but when I shall I no not if the 
enemy don't com upon us again this fall I intend to com down and see you we 
remember our love to all brothers and sisters Respects to all inquiring friend 
so no more at present but I remain your Dutyful son until Death 

Joseph Rudd. 

John Remembers his Duty to you And has laid out all your Money and 
Bought About 40 acres of land with a log hous and has a dead of it Joining the 
seventeen acres Cleared the Rest is wild land I have enclosed Forty shilling 
upon the Note If you have the Rest you May send it if you Pleas 

(Superscribed) 
Mr To 

Joseph Rudd 
att 

Norwich. 



INDEX 



Abantzene, 6i 

Abbott, Benjamin, 232; Capt. Joel, 
^il, 332, 334; Col. Lyman F., 464; 
Timothy, 287 

Abenakis Democracy, see Wappa- 
nachki and Algonquin Race, 22, 32, 
50, 93; traditions, iii, 20; map, 21; 
cantons, 20, 511; totemic crests 
and peace symbols, 94; castles, 27; 
great sachems or kings, 18; sa- 
chems, chieftains, and petty-saga- 
mores, 29; villages, planting- 
grounds and burial-fields, 28; weap- 
ons, 30; customs, 54; Christian 
missions, 44; fugitives during King 
Philip's War, 52; Father Rale's 
dictionary, 76; origin of Indian 
names, 511-522 

Abenaquis, 27, 31, 34, 52, 55, 88, 98, 

! 155 

I Abercrombie, Gen., 364 
Acker, Samuel, 258 
Ackland, Maj., 360 
Adams, Mass., 184, 186, 329, 382, 
393, 426, 427, 442, 444, 470, 494, 

I 504, 506; first survey, 67, 69; sec- 
ond survey, 162; incorporation, 
193, 194; South Village, 192; North 
Village, 192; First Congregational 
Church, 190, 214; Quaker Church, 
473. 474. 496; progressive era, 200; 
First Baptist Church, 474; Metho- 
dist Episcopal Church, 474; Second 
Congregational Church, 185, 194; 
Universalist Church, 474; District 
Schools, 197; Roman Catholic 

^ Parish: Irish, French, and Polish 
Churches, 474; mill-centre, 437; 
manufactures, 461; Memorial Lib- 
rary, 474, 475 
Adams Brothers, 462; Enos, 464; 
George, 416, 417; Pres. John, 
387; John Quincy, 399; Dr. 
Samuel, Arlington, Vt., 290; Sam- 
uel, Boston, Mass., 193, 290, 291, 
293 



Adelphic Union, Williams Coll., 386, 

389, 390 

Adirondack Mountains, 22; sub- 
canton of Abenakis Democracy, 
25, 26 

Adventist Church, Little Hoosac 
Valley, N. Y., 245, 246 

^olus. Mount, see Dorset Moun- 
tain, 4, 28, 476; platform rock and 
cave, 496; origin of name, 496 

Aepjen, Great Sachem or King, 
Abenakis Democracy, see Soqui 
Race, iii, 16, 25, 28, 29, 32, 48, 53, 
120; Hudson's Half- Moon wel- 
comed, 16; French Walloons' 
treaty, 59; removal of Schodac 
Castle to Housatonac Valley, 47, 
55; Aepjen's (Bear's) Island deeded 
to Christians, 66; origin of name 
Schodac, 22 

Africa, missions, 409, 410 

Agawam hunting-grounds, Westfield 
Valley, Mass., see Grey-Lock's 
canton, 46 

Aiken, Benjamin and Edmund, 255; 
Edward, 437, 441 

Aix-la-Chapelle, Treaty, 148; hot 
springs, 47 1 

Al'oany, N. Y., 107, 1 12, 120, 147, 382, 
415, 432, 434, 436, 451, 502; court- 
house, 75, 86; capitol, 23; county, 
67, 96; subdivided into military 
districts, 256; sheriff's riot at West- 
minster, Vt., 291; County Clerk's 
office, 37, 65; forts, 75; old roads, 
152; traders, 77; gentlemen, 69, 71, 
83, 268; First Dutch Church, 252, 
292; jail, 273; Court of Ejectment 
of Benningtonians, 278, 281, 370; 
defeat of Albanians, 282, 286; In- 
dian Conferences, 84, 90, 93 ; Com- 
mittee of vSafety and Councils of 
War, 258, 291; Britishers plan to 
seize, 326; defences, 352; Legisla- 
tive Act against slavery, 264; 
Assembly, 124 



551 



552 



Index 



Alberta's Range, 401, 504 
Albertzen, Hendrick, no 
Aldrich, John, 132, 13S, 141, 142 
Alexander, King, 331 
Algiers, 219, 228; War of, 227 
Algonquin Race, 22, 25, 511-513; 
maps of cantons of, 21, 23; Algon- 
quins, iii, 25, 26, 34, 74; origin of 
name, 25, 511-513 
AUefonsce, Jean, 14, 477, 495 
Allen, vSir Thomas, 368; Samuel, ist, 
Samuel, 2d, Thomas and John, 368 
Allen, Joseph, 235, 368; niarriage, 
369; homestead, 369; removal to 
Cornwall, Ct.; children, 369 
Allen, Col. Ethan, 173, 183, 258, 262, 
294, 295, 296, 328, 374, 488; birth- 
place, 369; education and relig- 
ion, 370, 371, 372; love of liberty, 
368; marriage, 370; 372; defender 
of the Benningtonian settlers at the 
Albany Ejectment trials, 370; 
arrival at Bennington, Vt., 281; 
challenged by John Tabor Kemp, 
282; elected Colonel of the Green 
Mountain Boys militia, 255, 284; 
capture of Munroe's bandits, 287; 
routed Col. Reid's Scotch colony, 
288; designated the "Ringleader of 
Bennington Mob," 308; proclama- 
tions, 285, 286, 288, 289, 290; 
promissory note, 373; forms of gov- 
ernment, 374; homestead, Sunder- 
land, Yt., 370; Fort Ticonderoga 
expedition, 298, 301; Address to 
Green Mountain Boys, 302, 303; 
demand of surrender of Fort Ticon- 
deroga, 303; capture of Fort Ticon- 
deroga, 305, 306; plan to seize 
Montreal, Canada, 307; captured, 
by British, 308; Narrative of Cap- 
tivity in English jails, 303, 308, 310, 
370. 371 ! return to America, 371; 
visit to Washington's camp, 371; 
rank of lieut. -colonel and maj.- 
general of Vermont State militia, 
372, 373; Oracle of Reason, pub- 
lished, 371, 372, 413; treasonable 
letter of British officers, 374; sec- 
ond marriage, 375; cottage and 
farm, Burlington, Vt., 375, 376; 
children, 370, 373, 375, 376; death, 
376; heroic statues, 279, 379 
Allen, Ethan A., 376 
Allen, Gen. Ira, 310, 368; arrival at 



Bennington, Vt., 225, 288; secre- 
tary of Bennington Council of 
Safety, 321, 322; originator of 
sequestration of Tor}^ property, 
323; founder of Green Mountain 
Republic, 376, 377, 379; Sunderland, 
Vt., homestead, 376; diplomatist 
of Revolutionary period, 373, 374, 
375> 376; treasurer and surveyor- 
general of Repuljlic of Vermont, 
373; major-general of militia, 377; 
sojourn in England and France, 
378, 379; case before King's Bench, 
Eng., 378; ejectment from Champ- 
lain Valley estates, 379; address 
to Green Mountain Boys, 379; 
death and unknown grave, 377 
Allen, Charles B., 206, 224,225, 346; 
Col. Ebcnezer, 376, 413; Samuel, 
Sr., 140; children, 140, i43;Hcm,an, 
295, 296; Levi, 295, 373, 374; John, 
437; Philip, 262; Zebulon, 267; 
Francis Olcott, 379; Rev. Thomas, 
199. 328, 341, 34^- 368, 447; Pitts- 
field parishioners, 192; march to 
Gen. Stark's Walloomsac camji, 

337> 338, 343 
Allen Brook, 441 
All Saints Episcopal Chapel, Hoosac, 

N. Y., 477. 478 
Alpine Club of Williamstown, Mass., 

organization, 502, 503, 504, 506 
American Advocate, 399, 400, 424 
American Bible Society and Bible 

House, 423 
American Colonization Society, 422 
American Foreign Missions, 409 
American Revolution, 8, 9, 375, 410, 

413. 476 
American Traveller, 403 
Amherst, Gen. Jeffrey, 233 
Amherst, Mass., 187, 211, 392, 393, 

396, 405, 496 
Amsdel, Widow, 140 
Amsterdam, Holland, 19, 59 
Anderson, Rufus, 425; Capt. Samuel, 

118, 240, 337 
Andover Theological Seminary, 379, 

420, 423 
Andratoroct, 24 
Andries, Long, 23, 118 
Andros, Sir Edmund, viii, 45, 47, 

49. 50. 52, 53, 55, 96 
Anglo-Americans, 161 
Anthony, David, 196, 474, 475; 



I 



Inde 



X 



553 



Anthony, David — Continued 

Daniel Anthony, 197, 474; Susan 
B. Anthony, 197, 444, 474, 475 

Anthony, Mount, 4, 7, 16, 331, 371, 
476, 483, 484; cave, 495, 496; 482, 
493; Pass and Road, 280, 433; log- 
meeting-house, 215; proposed park, 
380, 493 

Antioch, 409, 510 

"Anti-Rent War," 238, 246 

"Anti-Slavery" Society, 424 

Appalachian Mountain Club, 502; 
Appalachia, 502, 503 

Appleton's Catholic Encyclopedia, 376 

Aqua-Machukes, 22 

Aqua- Vitas, 18 

Archerlv, Nathaniel, 232 

"Arch of Truth," 507 

Arlington, Vt., 28, 29, 286, 288, 372 

Arminius, victory of, 145 

Arminianism, 176, 418 

Armstrong, Dr. Asher, 249; Dr. 
Prosper, 249; Jonathan, 342; Major 
Armstrong, Battle of Saratoga, 361 

Arne, Mr., 94 

Arnold, William, 187, 188; Gov. 
Benedict, 188, 460 

Arnold, Gen. Benedict, 299, 545; ride 
from Caml:iridge to Williamstown, 
Mass., and thence to Castleton, Vt., 
300, 301; bill of expenses to Fort 
Ticonderoga, 300, 544, 545; contest 
with Col. Ethan Allen, 304; vol- 
unteers, 294, 302; command of 
Crown Point, 306; march to Que- 
bec, 180; command of Skenesboro 
Navy-yard, 314; hero of the bat- 
tles of Old Saratoga, 354, 355.350, 
357, 358, 360, 361 

Arnold, John, William, and Benedict, 
188; Harvey and John F., 460 

Arthur, Rev. William, 480; Gen. 
Chester A., 480 

Ashawagh, 84; Lake and Park, 470; 
Bogs, 493 

Ashawaghsac River, 28, 68, 69, 127, 
184, 200, 442, 444, 462; junction, 
150; mill-power of, 441; valley, 
470; meadow, 184, 186; roads and 
bridges, 185, 186, 448 

Ash Grove, Methodist Episcopal 
Church, 261, 262 

Ashland, Va., Battle of, 427 

Ashley, Rev. Jonathan, 151, 414; Col. 
John, 154, 273, 274, 414 



Ashton, Samuel, 258; Thomas and 

James, 261 
Atkinson, Francis, 248; Theodore, 

205, 210 
Atwood, Samuel, 213 
Auburn, Mass., 393 
Augustian Fathers, Hoosac, N. Y., 

426, 478 
Avery, Rev. David, 413; John, 390, 

492; Oliver, 167 
Avers, Capt. Smith, 153; Thomas, 

"153, 416 
Aylesworth, Freelove, 244 



B 



Babbitt, Capt. Amariah, 327 
Babcock, Adam, 294, 295, 296; 

"Honest" John, 248; Joshua, 2; 
Babcock, Lake, Grafton, N. Y., ic, 

248, 481 
Bacon, Ezekiel, 386; John, 382, 383; 

Pennel, 255 
Bacon Park, Greylock Reservation, 

Mass., 506; Bacon Brook, 503; 

Bacon poor-house, 503 
Bacheldor, Rev. John M., 210 
Bachtamo, 32 
Bachus, Hans and Petrus, 119, 233; 

William, 263 
Bain Patent, 261 
Bailey, Algernon Sidney, 419; Dr. 

Charles, 471; John Stanton, 235 
Baker, Elisha, Remember, and Mary, 

262, 369; Elisha, 173, 198, 262, 

369, 435; Baker Bridge, 369; 

grave and epitaph, 183; Capt. 

Remember, 2d, 173, 183, 286, 288, 

369; captured by John Munroe's 

bandits, 286; rescued, 287; death, 

307; powder-horn, 307; Capt. 

Charles, 191 
Balcarre, Earl of, 360, 361 
Bald Mountain, 472, 479, 500, 501 
Baldwin, Loami, 451; William B. 

470; Reuben, 244 
BaU, Judge Levi Chandler, 236, 249, 

393, 454, 480; Annals of Hoosac, 

N. Y., 438, 494 
Ball Seminary, Hoosac Falls, N. Y., 

480; High School, 480 
Ballston Spa, N. Y., 102 
Ballou Farm, 190 
Bancroft, George, i, 75, 345 



554 



Index 



Bangor, Goldsboro, 256; Maine 

Woods, 423 
Banker, Garret, 65; John, 263; 

Joshua, 248; Amos Bryan, 106 
Bannister, Ridley, 399 
Barber, Daniel, 461; Joseph, 279 
Barbour, Simeon, 353 
Barclay, Rev. Thomas, 93 
Bardwell, Mehitable, 419 
Barker, Stephen, 458, 468 
Barnhart, Henry, 117, 122, 238 
Barnes, Giles, 199; Stage Ofifice, 448 
Barnard, Ensign Tallah, 169, 170; 

Tavern, 300 
Barnct, Benjamin, 245; Barnet's 

Place, Old Schaghticoke, 86, 346 
"Bars Fight," Old Deerfield, Mass., 

140, 143 

Barre, Col., 276 

Barrington, Mass., 152 

Bascom, Dr. John, 405, 406, 408, 
503; 424, 427, 471, 472; commis- 
sioner of Greylock Park Reserva- 
tion, 497, 505, 508; death, 505 

Bascom, Lake, 6, 496; natural dam, 
135; Meadow, 70; Mount, 500, 501, 
506 

Bass, Abraham, 210 

Bassett, Ephraim, 202, 210 

Batchelder, Albert S., 310 

Bates, Willard, 225 

Batten Kill, i, 28, 29, 66, 117, 343, 
352, 353; patents, 37; Gen. Bur- 
goyne's encampment, 330; origin 
of name, 66 

Baum, Lieut. -Col. Frederick, 223, 326, 
330. 341, 334; valor of Hessian 
troops, 330, 341 ; letter to Gen. 
Burgoyne, 332, 334, 335; encamp- 
ments, 332, 335, 336; redouljts, 334, 
335. 336, 340; battle, 340, 341; 
cannon, 342, 347; prisoners, wound- 
ed and dead, 342, 345, 346; death 
and unknown grave, 334, 345, 346; 
sword and camp-kettle, 219, 342 

Beach, Gershorm, 296 

Bear Island, Albany, N. Y., 66 

Bear Warriors of Abenakis Democ- 
racy, see Soqui Race, 15, 20 

Beardsley, Levi and Obadiah, 236 

Beatty, Mary, 196 

Beaubassin, Sieur, 133, 137 

Beauvais, Lieut., 80 

Beaver Print Works, 460 

Bebee, Lucy Allen, 370 



Becancour Village, 47, 104, 130, 133 

"Beech-Seal Court," of the Wilder- 
ness, 241, 279 

Beecher, Rev. Henry Ward, 183 

"Bee Hill," 492, 494 

Beeman, Nathan, 298, 302 

Becker, John P., 364 

Beckley Iron Furnace, 443, 444 

Belcher, Gov. Jonathan, 69, 120; 
ordered first survey of English 
Hoosac towns, 79; Mount Belcher, 
70, 163 

Bellamont, Lord (Richard Coote), 

73, 74, 76 
Bellows'-Pipe hunting-grounds, 127, 

484, 487, 496, 499 
Beman, Rev. Mr., 424 
Bemis Fothem, tavern, 353, 356; 

Bemis Heights, N. Y., 325, 343, 

352. 353, 358 
Benedict, Erastus, 397; George Gren- 
ville. Report on Recovery of Fay's 
Records of Councils of Safety, 310; 
Benedict's Hist, of Baptist Churches, 
261; Benedict's Hist, of Vermont 
in Civil War, 428; Benedict's 
Cotton-mill, 446 
Benton and Fuller, Paper-Mill, 464 
Bentley, Col., 235; Caleb, 235 
Bennett, Francis, 236; Asa, 317 
Bennington, Vt., 120, 121, 183, 185, 

205, 227, 271, 286, 330, 384, 399, 
427, 432, 439, 444, 445, 446, 449, 
451, 464, 471; Centre, 293, 296, 
371. 433; Hill, 204, 211; East 
Bennington Village, 219, 476; 
Falls, 464; Charter, 205, 206, 209; 
survey, 205, 206, 208; proprietors, 

206, 212, 213; organization, 213; 
Congregational Church, 214, 215, 
216, 324, 345, 412, 413, 419; great 
revival, 419; Second Congrega- 
tional Church, 282; first burial- 
field, 216; historic epitaphs, 229; 
Sons of Freedom, 212; militia, 282, 
306; Court House, 283; newspapers. 
The Vermont Gazette, 226, 372; 
The Bennington Banner, 226, 355; 
mill-centre, 437; manufactures, 
462; flax-seed market, 444; post- 
office controversy, 476; incorpora- 
tion of East Binnington Village, 
476; churches, 476; schools and 
academies, 226, 478; railroads, 
457, 458 



Index 



555 



Bennington Battle, iii, i, 78, 182, 
183, 212, 218, 223, 234, 235, 241, 
279. 295, 331, 351, 356,311,447; 
opening and closing skirmishes, 
334; battlefield of the Walloomsac 
Valley, N. Y. and Vt., 274, 336, 
339, 343- 346; trophies, 346; con- 
temporaries' designation of "Ben- 
nington Battle" and centennial 
celebrations, 348; Battle Monu- 
ment, 204, 207, 218, 349, 372, 350, 
476 

Bennington County, Vt., Double 
vShire System, 476; Court Houses, 
476; Clerk's Office, 413 

"Bennington Mob," see Col. Ethan 
Allen and Captains, 286 

Benningtonians' Petition to Gov. 
Tryon, 287 

Benson, Egbert, 70 

Berkshire Co., Mass., settlers, 67; 
incorporation and extent, 171, 
185, 486, 500; Williams College 
Removal Case, 393, 394; militia, 
122, 348; History, 176 

Berkshire, Cotton-mills, 458, 461, 
462; Glass-works, 442; Historical 
Society, 475; Sanatorium, 473 

Berlin, N. Y., 7, 234, 235, 438, 481; 
organization of town, 240; Pass, 10 

Berlin Bible Society, 423 

Bernard, Gov. Francis, 171, 442 

Best, Jacob, 119, 231, 233 

Beschefer, Father, 36 

Bethlehem, Pa., 98 

Beverly, William, 365, 366 

Beverwyck, Rensselaerwyck Manor, 
N.Y.,62 

"Big Bethel," Battle of, 428 

"Big-Eddy," Hart's Falls, 438, 440, 
441, 468, 469 

Biglow, Mr., 236 

Billings, Maj. vSamuel, 224, 229; 
" Josh Billings, " see Henry Shaw, 
442 

"Black Hawk," 49, 98, 498, 499 

Black Tavern, 198, 199,201,443,445 

"Black Tom," 301, 302 

Blackington, Peter, 458; Sandford, 
445, 458; mansion, 473; William, 
458 

Blackington, Mass., 5, 163, 187 

Blake, John, 366 

Blakely, Justus, 190; Capt. Blakely, 
191 



Blair, Col. Absalom, 256, 387; Austin, 
182; Henry, 182; William, 182, 387 

Blanchard, Col. Joshua, 155 

Bleecker, Jan Jansen, 66; Capt. John 
J., 90, 97, 255; company of "Min- 
ute Men," 286; wife, Ann Eliza, 
Memoirs, 258; John, 74; John R., 
282 

Bliss, Constant, 140 

Block, Capt, Adriaen, 23, 58 

Block Tavern, 185 

Blommaert, Samuel, 60 

Blood ville, N. Y., 107 

Bloody Pond, 158 

Bly, George, 458, 460 

Boght (Manor) Avenue, Rensselaer- 
wyck Manor, N. Y., 64 

Bolton, N. Y., 287 

Bond, Oliver, 227 

Bonesteel, Reuben, 235 

Boniface, Father, 37, 54 

Booth, Rev. William T., 406 

Border Forts, viii, 58, 71, 78, 80 

Borie (Bovie) Rykert, 115 

Boschloopers (fores u-runners), 62 

Boston, Mass., 163, 403, 438, 444, 
451, 473; General Court, 146; 
fur-traders and goods, 77 

Boston Committee of War, 294; 
addressed by Albanians, 291; 
letter to Gen. Stark, 374 

Bosworth, Capt. Nathaniel, 250 

Botta, Carlos, 20 

Bottom and Torrance, Collar-factory, 
464 

Boulders, 4, 7 

Boundary controversies, 62 

Bout, William, 1 1 1 

Bouwensen, Tymen, 31 

Bovie, John, 244; Nicholas, 121; 
Petrus, 121, 231, 241 

Bowen, Samuel, 117, 260; Bowen's 
Corners, 474 

Braddock, Gen., 152, 153, 156 

Bradford, Gov., 59; Bradford, Mass., 
420; Edward W., Henry, and 
William H., 464 

Braintree, Mass., 221, 410 

Braman, Paul, 235 

Brandon, Vt., i, 296 

Brandow, Rev. John Henry, 363 

Brandt, King, 93, 94, 96 

Bratt, Barnardus, 121, 130, 446; 
manor, 118, 119; mansion, 119,233, 
238; mills, 118; barns, 240; "God's 



556 



Index 



Bratt, Barnardus — Continued 

Acre," 240; children, 238; Barent 
Albertse, 88, 115; Daniel, 115; 
Daniel B., 238, 244; Elizabeth, 
238; Garret Tunisson, 238; Henry 
238; Johannes, 238; Alaria, 238 

Brattleboro, Vt., 181, 330, 443 

Brayton, Thomas A., 458; William 
E., 451, 458; Print Cloth-mill, 445 

Braytonville Cotton-mills, 458 

Breakenridge, Lieut. James, see 
Michael Leonard Place, 213, 219, 
278; King's Writ of Ejectment 
served on, 282, 285; Fort Breaken- 
ridge, 282; Bennington delegate to 
King of England, 288; John, 219 

Breccia Obelisk, 483 

Breese, Henry, red store, 233; Breese 
Neighborhood, see Rcnsselaers' 
Mills and Petersburgh, N. Y., 233; 
church creeds of, 235 

Brewster, Ezekicl, 278, 287 

Brewster's Manor-house, Scrooby, 
Eng., 59, 205 

Breyman, Col., 330, 338, 358; march 
to Bennington battlefield, 343; 
delay at St. Croix Bridge, 343; 
close of battle, 344; cannon cap- 
tured, 344; loss of men, 343; 
fatally wounded at Battle of Sara- 
toga, 361, 362 

Brick Cotton-mill, 440, 441 

Bridgeman, Jonathan, 132, 138 

Bridges, Benjamin, Place, 212; Jona- 
than, 178 

"Bright, Eustace," 403 

Briggs, Amos, 454, 468; Briggs' Bros., 
"Linwood Mills," North Adams, 
458; Ebenezer N., 476; Gov. George 
N., 425, 466; William, 466 

Bristol, Eng., 204 

Brimmer, Johannes George, 119, 123, 
233; sons of, 123; Massacre of 
Jeremiah, 123, 124; Godfrey, 234, 
235; Jonathan, 123 

Brimmer, Alvin, farm, 231; Daniel, 
124, 230; Green Brimmer farm, 
235; Henry J., 124 

Brinsmade, Rev. Daniel, 370 

Brisbin, James, 354 

British Bible Society, see Missions, 423 

British Constitution, forms of Colo- 
nial charter governments, 60 

British surrender at Battle of 
Saratoga, 352 



Broad Brook Glen, Williamstown, 
Mass., 171, 177, 429 

Brockhalls, Capt., 48 

Brodt (Bratt), Albertus and Daniel, 

115 

"Brom and Bet" Case of Slavery, 

414 

Bronck, Jonas, widow, 1 1 1 

"Brother Corlaer, " see Van Cor- 
laer or Curler, 46, 53, 74, 76 

Brougham, Lord, 399 

Brown's Bible, see Brownists or 
Separatists, 182 

Brown, Mrs. C. W., 231; Capt. 
Daniel, 327; David, 242; Elisha, 
200, 443; Ephraim, 120; George, 
440, 445; Henry Clinton, 386; 
Dr. Henry, 244, 246; Col. John, 
293, 294, 295, 296, 328; Levi L., 
460, 462; Nicholas, 117; Samuel, 
317; Stephen B., 460; Sylvanus, 
286; Thomas, 237; Dr. William F., 

473 
Brownell, Simeon, 260; Thomas, 

231 

Browning, David, 263 
Brownists, see Separatists, 59, 205 
Brownson, Rev. Amos, 195, 198, 2Co; 
Richard, 370; Mary, 370; Lieut. 

Eli, 327- 370 
Bruce, Peter, 50; Wallace, 348, 350 
Brunswick, N. Y., 7, 10; Colony of 

German Lutherans, 230 
Brush, Creon, the Tory, 375; Brush 
Dam, 470; Col. Nathaniel, 224; 
Vermont Volunteers of, 323, 337 
Bryan, David, 263; District, 264 
Bryant, Dr. Peter, 390; William 
Cullen, 266, 389, 390, 496; enters 
Sophomore Class at Williams, 385; 
influence on literary career, 492; 
honorable dismission from Wil- 
liams, 390; fiftieth class reunion 
and poem, 405, 406; elected presi- 
dent of Williams College Alun ni 
Association (1869), 406; Av.to- 
biography, 389; death, 392; poen^s: 
Earth, 4; An Indian at the Buricl- 
Place of his Fathers, 40, 42, 51, 108, 
484; The Battle- Field, 149, 159; 
The Disinterred Warrior, 58; Green 
River, 162, 392, 492; The Green 
Mountain Boys, 297 ; A nacreon's Ode 
to Spring, 390; Descriptio Gnlicl- 
mopolis, 184, 392, 492, 510; Death 



Index 



557 



Bryant — Continued 

to Slavery, 431; "7 Cannot For- 
get with what Fervid Devotion," 
483 ; Legends of the Delawares, 484, 
509; Thanatopsis, first draft, 488, 
489, 490, 492, 493; Inscription for 
the Entrance to a Wood, 492; Earth, 
and Hymn to Death, first drafts, 
493; The Poet, 510 

Bruyas, Father, 54 

Buchanan, Mrs. Fanny, 375 

Buck's-neck, 112, 470 

Buel, Hiram, 236, 264 

Bull, Isaac, 232, 236 

"Bull's Head," farm, 454 

" Bully Boys of Helderberg, " loi, 115 

"Bunch of Grape" Tavern, 191 

Bunker Hill, Battle of, 291, 322 

Burbank, Daniel, 174 

Burck, John, 441 

Burdict, John, 445 

Burgess, Prof. Ebenezer, 422 

Burgoyne, Gen. John, advance of 
army from Canada, 218, 258; 
River Boquet Camp, 324; head- 
quarters at Tory Skene's Manor of 
Whithall, 325; march to Fort 
Edward, 325, 326; proclamation 
to American patriots, 326, 327; 
council of war, 330; verbal or- 
ders to Col. Baum, 330, 339; 
clipping of both right and left 
detached wings of British Army, 
356; invasion of Old Saratoga 
Valley, 353; Batten Kill Camp, 
357; march and search for Gen. 
Gates's American Camp on Bemis 
Heights, 356; headquarters at 
Dovegat House, 357; Encamp- 
ment on Sword Farm, 357; Battle 
of vSeptember 19, 1777, 357, 358; 
council of war, 359; Great Re- 
doubt, 359; second battle delayed, 
358, 359; battle of October 7, 1777, 
defeat, 361; dead, wounded, and 
prisoners, 361; retreat to Dove- 
gat House, 362; feast at Gen. 
Schuyler's Mansion, 362; character, 
362; entrapped on Heights of 
Saratoga, and siege, 362; capitu- 
lation, 363; Articles of Convention 
signed beneath Treaty Elm, 363; 
British Army stack arms, 364; 
formal surrender, 364; British 
soldiers separated from German 



troops, 365; escape of prisoners, 
250; Gen. Burgoyne entertained 
by Gen. Schuyler, 366; influence 
of surrender of Gen. Burgoyne's 
Army, 367; camp kettle, 350; 
Orderly Book, 346; Letter to Lord 
Germaine, 281, 309 

Burnett, Gov., 97 

Burnham, John, 213, 278; "Empire 
Shawl-mills," 441 

Burns, Franz, and brother, 118, 121, 

137 
Burr, Aaron, 198 
Burrell, Samuel, 245 
Burrows, David, 260 
Burt, Capt., 154 

Burton, Benona, 244; George, 264 
Bushnell, Calvin, 420; Jedidiah, 417 
Buskirk (Van Buskirk), Cornelius, 
264; Bridge Village, 117, 243, 256, 
426, 468 
Butler, Prof. James, 303; Rev. Jona- 
than Harris, 303 
Butterfield, Capt., 170 
Buttermilk Falls, 91, 259, 264 
Button, Hiram, 268; William P., 55, 

91, 107 
Buxton Brook, 163 



Cabot, John, ar.d Sebastian, 60 

Cadenaret, Sachem, 130, 131, 133, 
134 

Cady homestead, North Adams, 
Mass., 187; shoe-factor}^ 461 

Calcutta, 421 

Calhoun (Calhoon), Samuel, 150; 
Simeon H., 400, 403, 424 

Calliers, Gov., see "Yonnondio," of 
New France, 76 

Calumet, 18, 30, 40, 53. 54 
•f-^alvin. Rev. John, 418; Calvm 
Society, 221, 262; grist-mill, 446 

Cambrian Age, Lower, 8; Cambrian 
quartzite rock, 4; Cambrian Sea, 
4, 8, 9; Cambrian Seashore, 483 

Cambridge, Mass., 204, 294 

Cambridge, N. Y., 7. 262, 291, 436, 
437, 440, 442; Valley, 109; soil, 
438; patents and first proprietors 
of, 235, 251, 256, 258; military 
district of, 251, 256, 260; First 
Baptist Church, 261; town-meet- 
ing and founders of township, 260, 



558 



Index 



Cambridge — Continued 

265; council of safety, 258; turn- 
pikes, 115, 243; Col. Baum's march 
up Cambridge Road to Bennington 
battleground, 330; population of 
town during 1790, 267; inns, 265, 
266; First Presbyterian Church, 
and Quaker Church, 262; acade- 
mies, 267; industries, 438, 444 

Camp Comfort, 227 

Campbell, Lieut. -Col. John, 371 

Canadas, 36, 157 

Canaan, Ct., 163, 171, 173 

Canassatiego, Sachem, 39 

Canedy's shoe-factory, 461 

Canfield, James Hulme, 408; Judge, 
414 

Caniaderaunte, see Lake Champlain, 
27 

Canis's Report, Hoosack Patent, 1 1 

Canterbury, Ct., 216 

Cape Cod Bay, 24 

Cape Breton Island, N. S., 78 

"Captivity," Mount, 6 

Carabines, 103 

Carleton, Gen., St. Johns Navy-yard, 

314 

Carpenter, family, 187, 188; Daniel 

P., 267; James, 262; Joseph, 246; 

William, quoted, 344; Niles, 210 
Carter, Dr. Franklin, 405 
Case, David, 237; Joseph, Place, 233; 

Rev. Wheeler, 347 
Cassidy, Lucas, 219 
Castle Island, see Rensselaer Island, 

15.32,58 
Castleton, N. "V ., jee Schodac, 16, 23, 

28; Castleton, Vt., 295, 297, 298, 

323 
"Catamount Tavern," 182, 183, 222, 

223, 281, 282, 286, 296, 309, 328, 

345, 371; sign-post, 310; council - 

chamber, 311 
Catlin, 2d., Lieut. John, 120, 128, 130, 

143; letters, 525, 526 
Catskill Mountains, iv, 22, 32, 47, 88, 

387; Mahican village, 550 
Catskill, N. Y., 112 
Cattomack, vSachem, 61 
Caughnawagas warriors, see Kryn, 

44, 52, 76, 161 
Cavell, Micah, 262 
Cenis, Mount tunnel, 457 
Century Dictionary, 504 
Century of Progress, 450-481 



Chadbourne, Paul Ansel, 405; grave, 

427 
Champlain, Samuel, iii, 16, 27, 60; 

Lake and Valley, i, 4, 98, 112, 413; 

Canal, 378 
Channing, Edward Weeks Baldero, 

159, 166 
Chapin, Capt. Elisha, Fort, Mass., 

122, 123, 150, 151, 166, 191; letters, 

536, 537; resignation, 152, 168; 

massacre, 170; Rev. E. H., 349, 

351 

Charlemont, Klass., 67, 130 

Charles II, King of Eng., 11, 44, 62 

Charter of N. Y. (1664), 38, 62 

Chase, Seth, 236, 262 

Chatfield, Asa, 353, 359 

Chatham, N. Y., 387 

Chazel, Prof. David, 267 

"Checkered House," 256 

Chekatabut, Sachem (Josiah), 39 

Chelsea, Mass., 226, 419 

Cherry Plains, Rensselaerwyck Man- 
or, 234, 434 

Chescodonta, Abenakis Democracy's 
Council-Hill, iii, 15, 19, 20, 22, 
59, 61; castle, 16 

Cheshire, Mass., 186, 248, 442; mili- 
tia, 329; "Big Cheese," 199, 442; 
industries, 442, 462 

Chidester, Sergt. William, Fort Hoo- 
sac, 168, 169; massacre, 170 

Chieftains, Abenakis, 46, 61 

"Chin-dee" ((Evil Eye), 15 

Chinese labor in N. E., 461 

Chingachgook (Big vSnake), Sachem, 
26, 29 

Chip Day, Williams Coll., 401, 402 

Chipman, Capt. John, 301, 375; 
Nathaniel Bumppo-Chipman, Sr., 
Capt. Nathaniel, Jr., and Patience, 
see Schipman 

Chittenden, Gov. Tllomas, 226, 310, 
322, 323; 308, 373; Hon. L. E., 293 

Choate, Joseph Hodge, 408; Col. 
Choate, 162 

Church, Jr., Benjamin, 300, 545 

Church, Protestant and Roman Cath- 
olic, 8, 77; church spires, 559, 
472 

Cilly, Col., Battle of vSaratoga, 360 

"Citv of Cannon" (Albany, N. Y.), 

75 
Civil War, 227, 425, 428, 4-14, 462, 

476, 502 



Index 



559 



Claessen, Claes, iii; Hans, 58; 
Lieut. Matthew, 143 

Clarendon Manor, 261, 272, 273 

Clark, "Billa" J., 225; Gen. Francis, 
343, 361; Lieut. -Gov. George, 79, 
120; Gideon, 235; Gen. Isaac, 286, 
287, 331; Ithamar, 224, 225; Jere- 
miah, 256, 258; Nathan, 280; 
Robert, 160; Capt. Samuel, 327, 
336, 344; William, 256 

Clark Hall, Williams Coll., 203 

Clarksburgh, Mass., 460 

Claverack, N. Y., 34, 47, 365 

Clay, Henry, 399 

Cleland, H. F., 504 

Cleveland, Adam, 437 

Clinton, Gen., 354, 355, 358, 359, 363; 
scouts, 259; Gov. De Witt, 79, 81, 

lOI 

Clio Hall, 226, 393 
Clute, Frederick, 65 
Clyfton, Matthew, 205 
Cochran, Capt. Robert, 278, 286, 287 
Cockburn, Surveyor, 287, 288 
Coffin, James Henry, 497 
Cohoes Falls, iii, 18, 25, 32, 43, 59, 
64, 65, 70; Lane, 61 ; City, 1 10, 352, 

437, 470 
Cohoha, 2, 28, 29; cornfield, 118, 121, 
122, 135, 137, 169; origin of name, 

511-525 
Colburn, Col. N. H. Reg., 357 
Colchester, Ct., 171, 180; Colchester 

Falls, Vt., 288 
Cold Spring, 402; Cold River, 455 
Colden, Alexander, 256; Lieut. -Gov., 

45, 232, 282; patents and fees, 271, 

272, 274, 277, 281; Proclamation, 

272>, 276, 308 
Cole, Lieut. -Col., 157 
Coleraine, Mass., 67 
Colgate, James, 218, 495 
Colgrove, Capt. Jeremiah, 185, 195, 

200, 202, 442, 443, 444, 448; Park, 

196 
Collins, Rev. Daniel, 171, 382; 

Edward, 120 
Colve, Gov. Anthony, 44 
Comstock, Capt. Sunderland militia, 

327; John, 245, 480 
Concord, Mass., 499; Concord N.H., 

24 
Congdon, Cotton-mill, Hart's Falls, 

Schaghticoke, N. Y., 440 
Connecticut, western boundary, 62 



Connecticut Vallev, iv, 47; patents 

of, 274 
Connecticut Coiirant, 287, 321 
Connecticut Home Mission Society, 

421 
"Constitution Hill," 241, 442 
Continental Congress, 290, 306, 321 
Continental Councils of Safety, 325 
Continental greenbacks, 200 
Continental road to Bennington, 

Vt.,447 
Conway, Mass., 380, 425 
Cook, Asaph, 190; James, 452; Rose 

Terry, 500 
Cooksboro Mills, 256 
Coon, Hezekiah, 124, 234, 246; Sam- 
uel, 240; Rev. William, 245, 246, 

250 
Cooper, James Fenimore, 25, 26, 

106, 133, 230; William, 300, 545 
Coosacs, iv, 3; Coos Falls, iv, 31; 

Valley, 32, 34; Meadow, 31 
Copake Lake, 1 1 
Corey, Rev. William, 237, 412; John, 

Benedict, and Paris, 210,236, 413, 

532 
Corlaer Village, 71 
Cornbury, Lord (Edward Hyde), 

52, 55, 86, 88, 90 
Cornwall, Ct., 293 
Corstiaensen, Capt. Hendrick, 19, 

58, 59 

Cotterel, Sir Charles, 94; Randal, 
James, and Samuel, 233 

Cotton-mill industry, 440, 444 

Council Tree, see Witenagemot Oak, 
29, 52, 106 

Councils of Safety, see Green Moun- 
tain Boys, viii, 282, 284, 286, 294, 
295. 309. 319; messengers 287, 344; 
Fort Ticonderoga, 296; Battle of 
Bennington, 220, 338, 344; War 
of 1812-1865, 227 

Courcello, Gov. Samuel, 11 1 

Coveville, N. Y. (Dovegat), 353 

Cowden, Maj. James, 256, 261, 265, 
266 

Cowee, Arthur, 438 

Cox, Dr., 425 

Crandall, C. H., 367; William vS., 227; 
Samuel, 260 

Crawford, John, 167; Marion, 500 

Creasy, Sir Edward Shepherd, 145, 
367, 450, 479 

Cromwellian politics, 273 



56o 



Index 



Cropsey, Jacob O., 234 

Crosbv, Gov., 98, 100, 102; Simeon, 

C rown Point, N. \ ., see Forts 
"Crow Town," see Bennington, 227 
Cummington, Mass., 389 
Cummins, Rev. Dr., 478 
Curtis, George William, 392 
Curtiss, Capt. Allan and Elihu, 166, 

167; Dr. Simeon, 249 
Cushman, Charlotte, 500 
Cuvler, Capt. Abraham Cornells, 282, 

285 



D 



Daggett, Rev. Naphtalia, 176, 412; 

Wayhew, 260 
Dale, Thomas Nelson, geologist, 10, 

16, 494, 500 
Dalton, Alass., 382, 442 
Daly, Father J. B., 426 
Danforth, Keyes, 386, 387; Capt. 

Sylvanus, 250 
Dankers, Jasper, 65 
Darby, Joseph, 187, 200, 443, 445; 

Leonard, 437, 440, 445 
Darling, David, 202 
Dartmouth Coll., 194, 226, 392, 393; 

removal case, 394 
Davis, Emerson, 396, 397; George, 

354; George Rex, 249, 250, 365; 

Miss Davis, teacher, 231 
Dawson, Henry B., 310 
Day, Daniel, 173; Samuel, 198, 199 
Dayfoot, "Tory," 235 
Dean, Josiah, 166; Mr. Dean, 294 
Dearborn, Gen., 357, 360 
De Chastellux, Marquis, 366 
Declaration of Independence, 216, 

293- 436 
Deerfield, Mass., 48, 76, 114, 126, 

140, 143, 145, 151, 210, 307, 336, 

451. 455; River, 454; roads, 177 
Defiance, Mount, 324 
De Fonda, Johannes, 115, 233; 

neighborhood, 119, 233 
De la Galissoniere, J^Iarquis, 141 
De Grove, H., 249 
De Laet, Johannes, 60 
De Lamotte, Martin, 91 
De Lancey, Lieut.-Gov. James, 102, 

104, 120, 124, 232 
De Laplace, Capt., 302, 303 
Delaware-Mahican Indians, 511-516 



De Montesquieu's Spirit of Laws, 368 
Demorest Monthly Mag., 502 
Demuy, Lieut., 133, 136, 137, 138, 

140 
Denison, Rev. John, 503; Rev. John 

Hopkins, 428 
Dennis, Rev. J. S., 430, 431 
De Norville, Le Seur (Norton), 139 
De Peyster, Gen. J. Watts, 352 
De Puy, H. W., 287 
De Ridder, Garret, 353 
De Ronde, Rev. Lambertus, 254; 

Margareta Catherine De Sandra, 

254 
De Rouville, Hertel, 76 
De Ruyter, Gen., 92, 115; Johannes 

119.233 
De ToqueviUe's Union Americaine, 

432 

De Tracy, Marquis, 34 

De Vaudreuil, Gen. Rigaud, and 

Gov. Pierre, 81, 161 
Devil's Chimney, see Hobbamocko, 
8, II, 40, 84, 90, 468; Devil's 
Kitchen, 106 
Devol, Rev. Cornelius, 262 
De Wandelaer, Johannes, 91, 254 
Dewey, Prof. Chester, 387, 399, 408, 
493; Judge Charles A., 394; Daniel, 
173. 383, 387; Dewey ville (Bray- 
tonville). Rev. Jedediah, 215, 216, 
217, 218, 222, 226, 278, 287, 418; 
epitaph, 229; Capt. Elisha, Inn, 
216, 218, 222; company, 217, 323, 
337; muster roll, 547, 548; Eldad, 



214. 



= /. 



228; Dewey mansion 



(1777), 217; mill and brook, 214: 
Tutor Eldad, 226,393; Josiah, 236 
De Witt, Rev., 480 
Dexter, Henry JMorton, 205 
"Diamond Rock." 8, 61, 65, 66 
Dianonaehowa trail, see Batten Kill, 

31 

Dickenson, Thomas W., and Con- 
sider, 300, 301 

Diderot's Memoirs, 161 

Dieskau, Gen., French and Indian 
Army (1755), 154, 155, 156, 157, 
161 

Digges, Sir Dudley, 18 

Dimmick's Stand, see Herrick's Tav- 
ern, 223 

Dingermans, Adams, 1 11 

Document History of N. Y., 312, 313, 
540, 541. 542, 543 



Index 



561 



Dodd, Prof. Cyrus, 472 

Dome, The, 4, 409, 471, 476, 493 

Dongan, Gov. Thomas, 38, 66, 84, 112 

Dorset, Vt., 342 

Dorr, Dr. Jonathan, 265, 266; 

Joseph, 445, 446. 480; Russell, 70 
Doty's Cotton-mill, 441, 446, 466 
Douglas, Asa, 173; ('apt. William, 

234, 295, 296, 298, 301, 302, 327 
Dovegat House (Coveville), 66, 353 
Dow, Rev. Lorenzo, 196 
Doxie, Samuel, 97 
Drake, Samuel G., 39 
Drummond, Rev., 353 
Drurj^, Nathan, 327, 329; Phoebe, 

393; Academy and High School, 

196,472 
Duane, James, 70, 272, 277, 278, 281, 

286 
Dublin, Ireland, 436, 445; Castle, 

227 
Duke of York, see Charter of N. Y. 

and James II., 32, 271 
Dunham, Capt. Hezekiah, 354; Oba- 

diah, 210 
Dunning, Josiah, 279, 295, 306, 338, 

345; Matthew, 210; Michael, 210, 

295 

Durham Manor, 272; cattle, 249 

Dutch Hooesac (Little Hoosac), 
Rensselaerwj'ck Manor, N. Y., 114, 
123, 124, 126, 130; patroon and ten- 
antry, 119; massacres, 167 

Dutch Hoosac, see Hoosac, N. Y., 
104, 109, 121, 122, 127, 142, 205, 
441, 450; patroons, 69, 122; French 
and Indian invasion, 104, 168; 
Militia, 14th N. Y. Regiment, 361 

Dutchess Co., N. Y., 92, 370, 371 

Dwaas Kill, 12 

Dwight, Edwin, 420; Henry W., 400; 
Nathaniel, 162, 186; Timothy, 
67, 162 

Dyer, E. Parter, 496; William, 107 



E 



Eagle Bridge, N. Y., 1 10, 117, 136, 

458, 467; toll-bridge, 243 
Eames (Ames), Nathaniel, 132, 143 
"Early Morning Scout," 157 
East Canada Creek, 95 
East Hampton, Ct., 142 
East Granby, Ct., 347 
East Hoosac (Hoosuck) Plantation, 
36 



Mass., 184; first survey (1739), 67, 
69; second survey (1749) and plan, 
187, 188; proprietors, 191; mill- 
power, 186, 187; First Congrega- 
tional log meeting-house, 190, 214; 
burial-fields, 196; Quaker meeting- 
house, 473, 474, 496; town-meeting, 
incorporation as Adams, 193, 194; 
proposed free school, 153 

Eastman's School for Girls, 472 

Easton, Col. James, 295, 296, 298 

Eaton, Capt. Abel, 387; Amos, 10, 
40, 387, 388, 389, 452, 493 

Eddy family, 187, 188; Rose, 260; 
Capt. Eddy's R. I. ship-carpen- 
ters, 180, 315; Brig.-Gen. Gilbert, 
250,265 

Eelkins, Capt. Jacob Jacobs, 58, 59 

Eggerton, Eleazar, 286, 331 

Eldred's Inn, 233, 234, 235; Silas 
Eldred, 231 

Embury, Rev. Philip, 262 

Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 25, 498, 492, 

494 
Emmons, Dr. Ebenezer, geologist, 

10, 388, 400, 403, 408, 493; Mount 

Emmons, 10 
English Hoosac, 205; Pilgrims, 59, 

60, 61, 67, 205, 224 
English Revolution, 71, 413 
England's Judicature Act, 399 
Equinox, Mount, Taconac Range, 4 
Erie Canal, 421; promoter, 442; 

first lock, 450; opening, 451; 

Grand Barge Canal, 481 
Estes, David, 200, 443; Truman, 446 
Esther, Queen, Schaghticokes and 

St. Regis cantons, 56, 106 
Esopus, Massacre of, 1 1 1 
Etow Oh Koam, Sachem, 93, 94 
Evangelical (Evangelist) Magazifie, 

410, 423, 425 
Everett, Edward, 451 
Evil Spirit (Fiend of Calamity), 106 
Exeter, R. I., 221 



Faillon, Rev. Father M., 376 
Fairlee, Vt., 434; West Fairlee, Vt., 

336, 394 
Fallen-hiU, 8, 39, 84, 90, 106, 114, 

468 
Falls Quequick(N.Y.), 11,26,84, 118, 

230, 236, 301 ; Manor and tenantry. 



562 



Index 



Falls Quequick — Continued 

117, 237; burial-fields, 238; mills, 
122, 437, 444, 446; First Baptist 
Church, 245, 478; post-office, 243 

Fassett, Capt. John, 213, 221, 273, 
278 

Fay, Benjamin, 218; Dr. Jonas, 287; 
Records of Council of Safety, 310, 
329; Declaration of Vermont's In- 
dependence, 319, 321; Samuel, 212; 
Stephen, 222, 278, 310, 345 

Federal Constitution, township sys- 
tem, 238, 241, 442 

Ferrisburgh, Vt., 373 

Fellows, Gen., 362 

Festivals, Indian, 28, 53 

Field, Cj^rus W., 402; Field's Park, 
'^7i< ^11 1 402; Rev. David, 406; 
David Dudley, 160, 398, 399, 406, 
425, 482, 494; Dudley, 406; Elisha, 
219; Jesse, 343; Stephen J., 398 

"Fiend of Calamity," see Evil Spirit, 
106, 134, 470, 481 

Fillmore, Pres. Millard, Ensign Na- 
thaniel, Sr., 218; Nathaniel, Jr., 218 

Finley, Dr., Colonization Society, 422 

Finney Tavern, 250, 265, 448 

Fish Creek, 26, 37, 352, 353; herring 
industry, 436 

Fishkill, N. Y., I 

Fisk, Ezra, 420; James, Jr., 467 

Fitch, Rev. Ebenezer, 145, 146, 383, 
384, 386, 387, 389, 412; Report, 
394; resignation, 392; Mount Fitch, 
163, 503; Hon. John, 50, 249 

Fitchburgh River, 451; Fitchburgh 
Railroad, 458 

FitzMaurice, Lord Edmund, 366 

Five Nations, see Iroquois Confeder- 
acy, 27 

Five Points Tavern, 187, 193 

Flags, Colonial, viii 

Flax-seed industry, 436, 443, 444 

Flora's Glen, see Thanatopsis Glen, 
489, 490, 492 

Florida, Mass., 455, 472 

Folsom, Capt., 155, 157 

Fonda, N. Y., 119 

Forbes, Maj., Indian scouts, 357; 
Dr. John, 235; Mary Allen, 373; 
Phineas, 132 

Ford, Lieut. William, 328; Jacob, 
245; Thomas, 244 

Foreign Missions, see Missions, 410, 
411; Foreign Mission School, 421 



Forest Park Observatory, 473, 475 
Forts: Albany, 34, 37, 44, 48, 50, 71, 
75, 78, 79, 81, 93, 95, 101, 124, 153; 
Amsterdam, 32, 34, 115; Anne, 78, 
93; Aurania, see Orange, 19; Ben- 
nington, 331, 332; Breakenridge, 
281 ; Carillon, see Ticonderoga, 105; 
Cassin, 112; Clinton, 78, 81, 82, 
loi ; Crailo, vi, 19, 34, 84, 114, 364; 
founders, no, in; Crown Point, 
56-6 Fort St. Frederic, viii, 154, 301, 
306; Dayton, 95; Deerfield, 137, 
140, 147"; Dummer, 79, 147, 150; 
Edward, see Fort Lyman, 81, 153, 
154, 157; encampment of Gen. 
Johnson's Army (1755), I55. 156; 
Gen. Burgoyne's Army (1777), 326; 
Frederick, 50; "Gibraltar," 78, 80; 
capture, 208; Good Hope, 26, 61, 
III, 115; Half-Moon (site of Moe- 
nemines Castle), 65, 77, loi, 115, 
117, 126, 169, 231, 253; Hardy, 
353; Herkimer, 95; Hoosac, 122, 
162, 171, 183, 205, 210; attack of 
French and Indians, 170; Ingolds- 
by, 78; Lyman, see Fort Edward, 
153; Massachusetts, v, vi, 8, 71, 

78, 79, loi, 119, 120, 124, 126, 

127, 128, 129, 130, 131, 134, 137, 
139, 140, 142, 144, 147, 148, 149, 
151, 152, 153, 166, 168, 169, 170, 
183, 187, 205, 210, 450; IMeadow, 
203; Farm, 168; second fort, 146; 
scouts, 167; chaplains, 412; "God's 
Acre," 196; English flag, 150; 
"Hero of Fort Mass, " 143; Journal 
of Operation, 126; Muster Rolls and 
Letters, 124, 125, 126, 525-538; 
Monroe, 428; Nassoureen, 32, 
58; Nassou, 44; Nastagione, 71; 
Neilson, 356, 357, 360; Num.tei 
Four, 80, 322; Orange, vi, 30, 31, 
34, 92, no. III, 114; Pelham, 79, 

128, 148, 210; Putney, 143; Sara- 
toga, 78, 79, 81, 353; Schaghti- 
coke, 74, 77, 83, 85, 86, 93, 95, 100, 
loi, 103, 105, 126, 168; Colony of, 
117; British outpost, 258; Schenec- 
tady, 46, III, 252; Shirley, 79, 128, 
130, 131, 142, 148, 210; St. Croix, 
V, 36, 37, loi, 109, 113, 114, 126, 
127, 137, 141, 495; Colony of, 
115, 117; St. Frederic, viii, 71, 

79, 81, 82, 102, 141, 154, 155; St. 
Regis, 47, 98; Ticonderoga, 124, 



Index 



563 



Forts — Continued 

178, 183, 295, 319; Col. Ethan 

Allen's capture, 258, 293, 294; 

Gen. St. Clair's evacuation, 322; 

Gen. Burgoyne's capture, 324; 

Vrooman, see .Saratoga, 78; William 

Hendrick, 44; William Henry, 161; 

Massachusetts, Fort, Hist. Soc. 148, 

191, 198, 398, 473 
Foster, Ezekiel, 150, 166 
Fox, Jehiel, 444, 446 
Framingham, Eng., 171, 442; Fram- 

ingham, Ct., 245, 370 
Francis, Col., 324 
Francis, Talbot, 292 
Francken, Henry Andrew, 243 
Franklin, Dr. Benjamin, 54, 146, 276, 

468 
Fraser, Gen., 326, 330, 357, 358, 359, 

360,361,362 
French Hoosac, 109 
Free Masonry organization, 243 
Free Press of Newburyport, Mass., 

424 
Free School of Adams, Mass., 383 
Free School of Williamstown, Mass., 

see Williams Coll., 382, 383, 385, 

432 
Freehold Court, 279, 280 
Freeman, Isaac, 353, 357 
Fremin, Father, 36, 37 
French and Indian War, 102, 103, 105, 

114, 116, 122, 139, 151, 152, 162, 

166, 167, 168, 206, 232, 257, 272 
French, Jeremiah, 277 
French Revolution, 378, 413 
French Walloons (Fort Crailo and 

Fort St. Croix), 30, 59 
Frothingham, Rev. Ebenezer, 215 
Frye, Capt., 227 
Fuller, Jonathan, 237; Dr. Josiah, 

ejectment case, 282, 286 
F'ulton, Robert, 434 
F"urnace Brook, 445; Furnace Grove, 

227; Furnace Hill, 443 



G 



Galashields, Scotland, 461 

Gale, E. T., 454 

Gandawague Village, 36, 44 

Garden Association, 425 

Garden Day, Williams Coll., 401, 402 

Gardner, Abram B., 458; Elder 



George, 210, 211; "Gad," 241; 
Capt. Caleb, 502; Caleb, Jr., 502; 
Mrs. Saniuel, see Barnardus Bratt, 
Hoosac Manor, 119 

Garfield, Gen. James, 405, 406; 
assassination, 480; Harry Augus- 
tus, Garfield, 405 

Garretson, Rev. Freeborn, 221 

Garrison, William Lloyd, 424, 476 

Gates, Gen. Horatio, see Saratoga 
Battles and Councils of Safety, 36, 
318, 355, 357; encampments, 258, 
356, 360; plans of attack of 
Burgoyne's Army, 359, 362 

German Flats, 95; German home- 
ranks, 365 

Germaine, Lord George, 366, 367 

Geronkonte, Sachem, Onondagas, 
Iroquois Confederacy, 74, 76 

Gettysburgh, Battle, 428 

"Giants of the North," 486; "Giants 
of the Vale," 476, 496 

Gibson, Hamilton, 494 

Gibbs, Dr. Caleb, 221, 225 

Gideon, Sachem, 98 

Gifiord, Elihu, 260, 265; Capt. 
Nathan, 260 

Gilmore, Capt. George, 256; William, 

236, 343 
Glacial Period, 4, 6, 481 
Gladiolus Fields, 438, 481 
Gladden, Rev. Washington, 408, 448, 

452, 461 
Glastonbury, Vt., 227 
Glezen, Levi, 393, 394 
Glick, German officer. Col. Baum s 

redoubts, 336, 338, 340, 341 
"God of Thunder," 106, 513, 525 
Gomez, Spanish navigator, 15 
Gooding, Elmer, 336; Peter, 240 
Goodrich, Jenny Paul, 398; John Z. 

70 
Goodsell, Rev. Buel, 221 
Goodyn, Samuel, 60 
Gookin, Daniel, 27 
Gordon, Joseph, 440, 441, 445, 446, 

448; Stephen, 419 
Gould's Farm, 504 
Governor Island, 15 
Grafton, N. Y., 7, 10; tenantry, 248; 

First Baptist Church, 248; Paint 

and putty-mills, 438 
Grand Committee of Safety, 286, 309 
Grant, Anna McVicar, 102 
Gravel Day, Williams Coll., 401, 403 



564 



Index 



Graves, Ebenezer, i66; Moses, 1 66, 

i68, 191 
Great Barrington, Mass., 410 
Green, Bryan, 409, 419, 420, 424; 

Edward, 233; Joseph, 235; Gen. 

Nathaniel, 235; William, 354 
Greenbush, N. Y., 30, 34, 59, 91, 11 1; 

French Walloon and Dutch Boer 

tenantry, no; mills, 234; camp of 

Col. Ephraim Williams's Berkshire 

Boys (1755), 152, 153 
Greenfield, Mass., 185, 199, 443, 449; 

Greenfield and Hoosac Tunnel 

Railroad Company, 452, 454 
Green Island, 77 
Green IMountains, iv, vi, i, 8, 47, 

444, 471; bed-rock, 454; origin of 

name, 321, 322, 468 
Green Mountain Boys, 183, 219, 251, 

304; first company of militia, 271, 

273; muster roll, 275; regiment, 

286; service, 427, 428; heroic 

statues, 379, 380 
Green Mountain settlers, 1749- 

1763, 271; Petition to Gov. Moore 

N. Y., 277; Petition to King of 

Eng., 277, 540, 541, 542 
Green Mountain State's Declaration 

of Independence, 321 
Green Mount Cemetery, 376 
Green Mountain Inn, 310 
Green River, Mass., 29, 32, 119, 125, 

166, 167, 172, 173, 500; Valley, 165, 

185,501,506, 
Greenwood versus Curtis, 414 
Greggs, Col., 331, 332, 335 
" Greylock, Godfrey," 500 
"Grey-lock," vSachem, 37,39, 46, 47, 

49. 53. 98. 114; origm of name, 486 
Greylock Range, Taconac System, 

4,' 8, 10, 128, 163, 185 
Greylock, Mount, 109, 140, 187, 197, 

263, 409, 474, 476, 484, 486, 494, 

496; base of, 483; summit, 3, 482, 

501 ; first towers, 402, 482, 485, 497, 

499. 500, 508 
Greylock Park Association, 504, 506; 

summit purchased, 506; iron tower, 

485 

Greylock Reservation, 487, 500, 501; 
organization, extent, appropria- 
tions, and roads, 506, 508 

Greylock Village, Alass., 426, 460; 
Cotton-mill, 458 

Greylock Hall, see Sand Springs, 177 



Greylock, Hotel,Williamstown, Mass. , 
170. 173. 179; Tavern, Adams, 
Mass., 202, 210 

Griffin, Rev. Edward Dorr, 395, 397, 
421, 423; Memorial Monument, 
400, 427; Hall, 386, 399, 400; 
Mount Griffin, 486; Tower, Grey- 
lock, 497 

Groesbeck, Col. Johannes, 85, 103, 
105; Nicholas, 117, 259, 264; 
William, 264; Woutcr, 91, 105; 
Nancy and Rel)ecca, 86 

Grover, Elder Benajah, 221 

Giieule, La Grande, 74 

Guile, Daniel, 354; Joseph, 237, 354 



H 



Hadley, Mass., 173 

Haight, William, 452 

Hale, Col., 324; Edward Everett, 408 

Half-Moon (Halve-Maen), iii, 16, 17, 
455. 483; Journal, 18 

Half-Moon, N. Y. (Waterford), 
Patent and Manor, 64, 65; origin of 
name, 18 

Halifax, N. S., 403 

Halstead, Samuel, 260; Miss Hal- 
stead, 398 

Hall, Gov. Hiland, 229, 264, 267, 
272, 274, 279, 281, 293, 494; 
Charles Cuthbert, 408; Granville 
Stanley, 408; Gordon, 420, 421, 
423; Dr. Murraj^ 249 

Hallenbeck, Daniel, 232 

Hamilton, Alexander, 387 

Hammond, Dr. Burton, 246 

Hampshire Co., Mass., see Berk- 
shire, 146; citizens on Williams 
Coll., removal case, 393, 394 

Hancock, John, 191, 193 

Hancock, Mass., 173, 210, 502; 
militia, 327 

Hancock, Lake, Vt., 463 

Hanover, N. H., 194 

Hansen, Johannes, 90, 263 

Hard, Gideon, 267 

Hardwick, Mass., 204, 211, 213, 215, 
216, 418 

Harmon, Sergt. Daniel, Inn (Yellow 
House), 223, 224, 278, 332 

Harrington, Abishai B., 476; Daniel, 
200; Silas, 237; Theophilus, 413, 
414 



Index 




Harris, Capt. Israel, see "Veritas," 

295, 296 
Harrison, Titus, 172, 198; Capt. 

Clement, 149, 191, 203 
Hart, John, 262, 263; mills, 438; 

Richard P., 452; I. B., 454 
Hart's Falls, N. Y., ii, 117, 251, 252, 

263, 264, 441, 445; mill-power, 437, 

438, 444, 468, 469, 470, 481 
Harteau, Henry, 202, 494 
Hartford, Ct., 26, 70, 163, 171, 294, 

301,444 

Hartwell, Dr. Thomas, 243 

Harwood, Eleazar, Peter, and Mary, 
211, 213, 278; Benjamin, 212, 213; 
Zachriah, 224 

Hastings, Joseph, 246; Warren, 413 

Haswell, Anthony, 226, 372; John C, 
476 

Hatfield, Mass., 130, 146, 153, 166, 
186,382 

Hathaway, Albert, 220; Nathaniel, 
458; Nicholas, 114, 240; Rufus, 
196,203,496 

Haupt, H., & Co., 454, 455, 456 

Haver Island, 61, 64, 65; American 
redoubts (1777), 352, 355 

Haverhill, Mass., 69, 76 

Haviland, Joseph, Patent, 220; Havi- 
land Brook, see Paran Creek, 120, 
214, 220; mill, 214, 220, 464, 
Haviland Mills, see Sage's City 
and North Bennington, Vt., 219; 
William Haviland, 220 

"Hawkeye" (Falls Quequick scout, 
Nathaniel Bumppo-Schipman or 
Chipman), 25, 133 

Hawkins, Robert, 178, 181 

Hawks, Sergt. John, Fort Mass., 130, 
131, 132, 138, 139, 140, 141, 142, 
143, 144, 249, 528, 529; grave, 143, 
151; Eleazer, 140; Gershorm, 130; 
Betsey, 249; Edward, 249 

Hawley, Lieut. Elisha, 147, 148, 154, 
531, 532; Maj. Joseph, 292; Jehiel, 
288 

Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 185; Ameri- 
can Note-Book, 202, 381, 403, 448, 
486, 496, 497, 498; Ethan Brand, 
448, 449, 499; Tangleivood Tales 
and Wonder-Book, 403 

Hayden, machinist, 196 

Hayes, Rutherford B., 348 

Haynes, Daniel (Black Hawk), 498, 
i 499; Philip, 244 



"Haystack Prayer-meeting," 424, 

425 
"Haystack Monument," 409, 411, 

425, 426 
Hazen, Pdchard, 69, 70, 79, 120, 163, 

187, 206; Mount Hazen, 69, 163, 

171 
Heartt, J. C, 454 

Helderberg Mountains, iv, 22, 47, 88 
Helling, Capt. William, 78, 233 
Hell's-gate, 12, 470 
Hemingwa}^ Abby, 496 
Hemlock, Glen Road, 397, 492; 

Brook, 167, 170, 173; Cemetery, 

183, 194 
Henderson, Caleb, 219, 287; Nelson, 

246; John and George (Hessians) 

366; Henderson's storehouse, Old 

Stockbridge, Mass., 365 
Hendrick, Emperor, 93, 94, 97; 

Schoharie (Bear) Tract, 95; death 

155, 156 
Hendricksen, Tyman, 11 1 
Henry, Lieut. William, 214, 219, 278, 

284; Henry's Bridge, see Irish 

Corners and Riverside; Patrick, 

219 
Herbin, Lieut., 8 
Herkimer, Gen. Nicholas, 354 
Herrick, Col. Samuel, Tavern, 223, 

296, 2>2^, 324, 375; capture of Alaj. 

Philip Skene (i775). 298, 301; 

Vermont Rangers (1777), 323. 337. 

338, 340- 342, 371 . , ^ , 
Herring fisheries, see tish Lreek, 436 
Hessians' Memorial Monument, 229, 

346 
Hibbard, Rev. Ithamar, 215 
Hilete (Alice), 65 
Hill, Capt., 227; Caleb, 244 
Hillis, Rev. Newell Dwight, 430 
Hinds, Ezekiel, 210 
Hinman, Aaron B., 263; Reuben, 190; 

Capt. Hinman, Fort Ticonderoga 

(1775), 304, 306, 307^ 
Hinsdill, Deacon Joseph, 221; Hms- 

dillville, Cotton-mill, 446 
Hintersass, Johann, 366 
Hiscox, William, 235 
Hitchcock, Capt., 154; Prof. Charles 

H., 496; Hon. S., 372; Nathaniel 

132 
Hoag (Hogg), Asa, 260; Abraham, 

Amos, Jonathan, and Stephen, 262 
Hobart, Col., 337, 34i 



566 



Index 



Hobbamocko; see Devil and Fiend 
of Calamity, 8, 9, 12, 20, 32, 39, 40, 
53, 106, 483 

Hochelaga, iii, 20 

Hodge, Otis, 444, 458, 460; Samuel, 
236 

Hoffman Station, N. Y., 37 

Hogg, Barent (Hoag), 231, 233 

Hogle (Van Hogleboom), Francis, 241 

Holbrook, Jr., Josiah, 199, 200; 
capture of Hessians, 191 

HoUister, J. S., 228 

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 457, 486; 
Isaac, Nathaniel, 287 

Holson, Capt., 140 

Home Missions, 412 

Hooesac, River and Valley, 78, 109, 
115, 230, 234, 235; Hooesac Pass, 
438; Rensselaerwyck Manor, Abe- 
nakis title-deeds "(1637), 61 

Hoosacs, see Coosacs, vSoquonsacs, 
and Abenakis Democracy; Can- 
tons of Hoosacs (Owl-Bears) 52; 
sachems, 61, 81; Owl Soquon, 471; 
religious shrines, 483; burial-fields, 

255 
Hoosacs' hunting-grounds, 14, 19, 

483 

Hoosac and Mohawk War, Soquon's 
victory over Kryn's Mohawks, 
36, 37. 38, 43. 44. 45. 88, 98 

Hoosac Pass, viii, I, 3, 36, 61, 109, 
114, 118, 124, 131, 140, 471, 483, 
494; Adams Pass, 185; Pownal 
Pass, 135, 141, 143, 433 

Hoosac Highlands, 497, 501, 504, 
506 

Hoosacs' Mountain (Forbidden), iii, 
II, 28, 36, 43, 128, 130, 140, 185, 
186, 193, 392, 412; war-trail and 
stage-roads, 211, 432, 434, 448, 
454; two crests, 454, formative 
rocks, 454 

Hoosacs' Lake District, 7, 10, 61, 230, 
248, 481; geology, 388; rye and 
flax industries, 230 

Hoosac Valley, iii, i, 29, 43, 47, 97, 
106, 120, 122, 124, 126, 152, 249, 
294, 481, 482, 494, 495; ancient 
names, 518-520; origin of name, 
134; roads, 90, 141, 147, 178; 
settlements, 205; defences, 125; 
mill-power and progressive era, 
450-481 

Hoosac River, 5, 6, 12, 28, 66, 68, 69, 



70, 84, 115, 120, 163, 171, 352, 353, 
432, 455- 477. 493; the Orontes of 
Western Hemisphere, 409, 430, 510; 
branches and Abenakis names, 518- 
520 

Hoosac Patent (Dutch and French 
Hoosac) (1688), Canis's Report, 11; 
proprietors, 71, 83, 112; bounds, 
84, 114; copy, 72, 73; great lots, 
117, 118, 251, 263; manors, 109; 
tenantry, 230, 231, 233; military 
districts, 235, 236, 261; Schaghti- 
coke sachems title-deeds, 37 (1707) 

Hoosac townships (English and Irish), 
first surveys (1739 and 1749), 45, 
56, 69; Schaghticoke-Stockbridge 
title-deeds, 151; Hoosacs' Meadow 
(Fort Mass.) challenged, 144, 146, 

535. 536 

Hoosac Canal, 451 

Hoosac Tunnel, 450, 452, 453, 458, 
471 ; promoters, 442, 450; headings, 
excavations, 454; rock-cutting and 
boring machines, 455, 456; line of 
tunnel, 457; Eastern Portal, 455, 
456; Western Portal, 453, 455, 457, 
472; West Shaft, 455; Central Shaft 
455, 456; final blast, 457; opening, 

457 

Hoosac, N. Y., 225, 233, 340, 442, 
498; town-meeting and proprietors, 
241, 242; "4. Corners Inn," 243, 
245, 250; First Baptist Church, 
236; post-office, 243; roads and 
bridges, 243; flax industries, 444 

Hoosac Falls, N. Y., Ii, 230, 231, 

427, 437. 443. 445. 454. 467. 468, 
471, 478; incorporated, 448; manu- 
factures, 467, 468; churches, 478; 
schools, 480; street railway, 470 
Hoosac Junction, N. Y., 11, 112, 458 
Hoosac Valley Electric Street Rail- 
way, 470, 475 
Hoosac Valley Park, 190, 475 
Hopkins, Prof. Albert, 10, 203, 408, 
424, 425, 429, 493, 500; Louise 
Payson, 502; Lieut, Edward Pay- 
son, 502; graves, 427, 502; Natural 
Sciences, 399, 403; astronomical 
observatory, 400, 401 ; meteoro- 
logical observatory, 402, 497, 500; 
Alpine Club, 503; essays, 425, 504; 
grave, 427, 504 
Hopkins, Benjamin, 314; Rev. Henry, 
405, 408, 427; Dr. Lemuel, 371 



Index 



567 



Hopkins, Rev. Mark, 319, 395, 396, 

398, 400, 404, 405, 410, 425, 426; 

Memorial Hall, 406, 407 
Hopkins, Col. Mark, 410 
Hopkins, Rev. Samuel, 32, 67, 119, 

409, 410; Hopkinsianism, 416, 417, 

418; Stephen, 287; Maj. Wait, 287 
Hopkins, Alount, 476 
Hopkins (Mark) Training School, 

472 
Hopkinton Society (Adventist) 418 
"Hopper" Amphitheatre, 503, 506, 

508; Hopper Brook, 166, 173, 175, 

500; Hopper Mills, 497 
Hopper's Wampanoag Mineral 

Springs, see Sand Springs, 471 
Horicons canton, see Lake George, 

17, 24, 26, 158 
Horsford, John, 210, 273; Josiah, 

168, 171, 173; William, 168, 170, 

180; Stephen, 171, 178 
Horton, Alexander, 475 
Hosack, Dr. David, 387 
Hossett, Gillis, 61 
"Hostead, " Knickerbacker Mansion, 

252,253 
Hough, Rev. Benjamin, 221, 245, 

290 
Houghton, Albert C, 473; Andrew J., 

473 
Housatonac River and Valley, 2, 28, 

29. 30, 32, 47. 108, 125; Abenakis 

names, 67, 520-522 
"House of Peace," 75 
Howe, Lord, 105, 307 
Howe, Gen. (1777), 324, 326, 354, 

366, 367 
Hoyt, Gen. E., 126, 529 
Hubbardton Battle, Vt., 324 
Hubbell, Aaron, 345; Elnathan, 218, 

278,287 
Hudson, Age, see Ordovican, 8; 

Bay, 19; River, 66, 516, 518; 

Valley, 352, 353, 390, 495; Patents, 

37; turnpikes, 434; railroads, 457 
Hudson, Henry, iii, 12, 16, 19, 205 
Hudson, Gent., Dr. Seth, 150, 166, 

167, 168, 170, 205, 210, 211, 232 
Hull, Daniel, 234, 235, 240, 246; 

Dr. Emerson, 246; Rev. Justus, 

246, 248, 250; Gen. William, 378 
Hunter, Gov., 95, 96; James, Sr., 

445, 461 
Huntington, Ct., 370 
Huntington, Dr. Daniel, 220 



Hurd, Amos, 196, 387; Jedediah, 

186, 190, 191, 192, 200 
Huron-Mohawk {Mingos), 26, 34, 430 
Hutchins, Thomas, 70 
Huyck, Jan, 115, 119,233 



Ida, Lake, 7 

Idle River, Eng., 205 

Idle Wild Inn, 197 

Ilchester, Earl, 274 

Independence, Mount, 397 

Indians, see Abenakis and Iroquois, 

511-525 
"Indian-cellar," 107 
Indian Commissioners, 45, 48 
"Indian Hill," 29 
Indian names, 511-525 
Indians in U. S., 430 
"Indian Square," 470 
Industrial Independence, 432, 435 
Ingersoll, Capt., 154; Councillor, 281 
Ingoldsby, Maj. -Gen., 75; Gov. 

Richard, 90 
"Inner Hopper," 503, 506 
Internal Revenue, 457 
International Code, Law Reform, 399 
"Irish Corners," see Riverside, 

Bennington, Vt., 214, 282, 375 
Iron Industries, 444, 445 
Iroquois Confederacy, see Six 

Nations, 16, 22, 27, 31, 44, 52, 93; 

cantons and names, 511, 522-525 
Irving, Washington, 92, 268, 269, 

299, 389, 390; musings on Death, 

488, 490, 495 
Ives, Prof., 387 



Jackson, N. Y., 7, 267 

Jackson, Gen., 421 

Jackson, Helen Hunt, 502 

James II., 62, 71, 84 

Jansen, Roelof , 92 ; Jacobus, 1 1 1 

Jefferson, Thomas, 198, 442, 445 

Jenkins, Charles, 392; Rev. J. J., 3^2 

Jennings, Rev. Isaac, 204, 216, 476, 

494, 546, 547 
Jennys, W., 182 
Jericho, Mass., 93 
"Jersey Slick," see Isaac Tichenor, 

219 
Jesuit Fathers, 36, 43, 44, 74, "4 



568 



Index 



Jewett, Samuel, 224; Lieut. Thomas, 

205, 210, 279, 282, 342 
Jewett's Cobble (Baum's Height), 

336 
Jewish Synagogue, 427 
Johannes, Emperor, Alinsi Race, 93, 

95 
"Johnny-cake Hills, " 109 
Johnson, Elias, 454; Isaac C, 468; 

Prof. Isaiah Y., 266; Jacques, 267; 

John, 232; Sylvander, 458; William 

Samuel, 277 
Johnson, Gen. William, 146, 152, 153, 

154. 155, 156, 157, 161 
Johnson Hill burial-field, 167, 170 
Johnsonville, N. Y., 332, 426, 458 
Jones, Electa F., 22, 30, 511, 513 
Jones, Sr., Col. Elisha, 187, 190; 

Capt. Elisha, Jr., 191, 192; David, 

326; Josiah, 120; Nathan, 187, 191 
Jones, Dea. Israel, 190, 191, 194, 200, 

203, 382, 393, 394 
Jones's Nose, Greylock Range, 506 
Jordan, Capt., 81; Thomas, 353 
Jorise, Capt. Adriaen, 60 
Journal of Geology, 504 
Journal of the Times, 425 
Joy, Benjamin and Charles, 438, 468 
Judson, Rev. Adoniram, 420, 423 
Judson, Rev. Dr. Edward, 423 
Juet, Robert, 16 

K 

Kalm, Peter, 97 

Kanamoack, Sachem, Alinsi Race, 61 

Kaskekouke, see Skatecook, 55, 134 

Kayonderossera Tract, see Schuy- 
lerville Tract, 37, 66 

Keach, Capt. Abram, 250 

Keene, N. H., 170, 187 

Keeperdo, Sachem, see Hoosac 
Abraham, 98, 136 

Keith, George, 445, 446 

Kellogg, Benjamin, 170; Prof. Ebe- 
nezer, 176,402; Joseph, 173; Sam- 
uel, 173, 174, 180, 198, 382, 387, 
502 

Kemble, Fanny, 500 

Kemp, John Tabor, 278, 281, 282, 
286 

Kent, Ct., 107, 180 

Kenyon, Nathaniel, 260 

Kinaquarione, last battle-ground, 
Hoosac and Mohawk War, 35 

Kinderhook Vahej^ 7, 31, 434 



King George's War, see Shirley's 
War, 76, 78, 79, 100, 114, 148, 153 

King Philip's War, see Metcom, 83 

King William's War, 83, no, 112, 155 

Kingsley Place, 184, 190; Abisha 
Kinglsey, 212 

Kingsley, Charles, 358 

Kingston, N. Y., in 

Kingston, R. I., 442 

Kinte-Kaye, see Hobbamocko, 77, 

103, 134, 138 
Kipp, Ignacc, 91, 255, 286, 488 
Kitsmac, 8, 15, 20, 30, 41 
Kittlehuyne Massacre, 100, loi 
Knickerbacker, Johannes Van Ber- 
gen, 91, 92; Herman Jansen, 91, 
96, 104; Bible (1682), 102; Capt. 
Johannes ist, 43, 83, 88, 89, 91, 
93. 96, 103, 104, 105, 117, 118; 
Col. Johannes 2d, 56, 87, 105, 252, 
256, 267, 268, 269, 270, 488; Bible, 
and church-bell, 252, 254; 14th 
N. Y. Regiment, 258, 311, 312, 313, 
361; portraits, 270, 490; Col. 
Johannes, 3d, 264, 267, 268, 452; 
Abram, 268; Herman Jansen 
(Prince), 264, 268, 270, 488; Col. 
William, see "Nigger Whipper, " 
30, 86, 267, 552; Joseph Foster, 
see "Poet of the Vale," Knicker- 
backer Homestead, 56, 102, 495, 
507; William H., 107 
Knickerbacker Cemetery, 107, 490 
Knowlton, Thomas, 132, 138, 139, 

142 
Kosciusko, Thaddeus, 352, 355, 356 
Kreigger, Col. WiUiam, 115; Juria 
Kreigger Colony, 69, 114, 115, 118, 
121, 135, 137, 167; mills, 210, 231 
232; Hans Kreigger, 210, 232, 255; 
John, Peter, and William, 173, 175, 

I77>I99.232 
Kreigger Rock Neighborhood, see 

North Pownal, Vt., 6, 28, 114, 122, 

169,467 
Krol, Rev. Sebastian, 61 
Kryn, Sachem, Maquaas Race, 32, 34, 

36, 37, 39. 43. 74. 114; Caugh- 

nawagas (St. Francois), 53, 71, 

75. 157; death, 47 



L 



Ladd, Edgar P., 239, 240, 241 ; Hiram, 
240 



Index 



569 



La Fayette, Gen., 202, 378, 494, 495 
La Force, Sieur, 133, 137 
Laggan, Scotland, 273 
Lake, Hendrick, 261, 332; Robert, 

115, 332; Rev. William, 245 
Lake Ashawagh (Pownal Pond), 493 
Lake Champlain (Lake Corlaer), 37, 

133.147,294 
Lake Corlaer, see Van Corlaer, 46 
Lake George, 37, 154, 204; Battle 

145-161 
Lake Long, 10, 248, 481 
Lake Onota, 30, 486 
Lake Pontoosac, 186 
Lake Saratoga, see Fish Creek and 

Saratoga. 
Lake St. Sacrement, 100, 153, l6l 
Lamb, Abigail, 460 
Landslides, 503, 504 
Lanes'uoro, Mass., 167, 171, 266, 327, 

38-, 399, 442, 506 
Langaon, John 322 
Lansing, Henry, 65; Jacob Abraham, 

256; John, 291; Peter, 353 
Lansingburgh, N. Y., 7, 30, 248, 258, 

263, 437 
La Prairie Village, 44, 75, 307 
Lassell's Gjminasium, 401 
Law Reform, 398, 399 
Laurentian Highlands, 4 
La Volterie, Lieut., 136 
Lawton, Elizabeth and Joseph, 260 
Lebanon, Mounts of, 409 
Learned, Gen., Battle of Saratoga, 

362 
Lee, Gen., 428; Joel, 452; Parson, 370 
Leggett, Gabriel and Isaac, 354 
Leicester, Mass., 393 
Lenape- Wyandotte Races, see Algon- 
quin Race, 511 
Lenape, Lenni-, see Unami Race, 

20, 22, 52, 55, 483 
Lenox, Mass., 342, 392 
Lespinard, Antonic, 66 
Letcher, Cornelius, 233, 234, 235, 

248; Hendrick, 119, 233 
Letter Post, 266 
Lewis, Abraham and Augustus, 235; 

Morgan, 364 
Lexington, Battle of, 179, 192, 290, 

291 
Leyden, Holland, 59, 205 
Liberated Slave, 424 
Liberian Colony, 422 
Lievens, Harmon, 65 



Limekilns, 462 

Lincoln, Abraham, 427; General, 200, 

347 
Lipp-incoW s Mag., 347 
Literary shrines, 482 
Litchfield, Ct., 163, 171, 172, 173, 

.371, 418 
Little, Rev. Woodbridge, 382 
"Little boy Joe," 498 
Little Hoosac, 7, 8, 84, 109, 124, 125, 

246, 438, 481 
Livermore, Capt. Samuel, 163, 170 
Livingston, Edward, 398; Capt. 

Henry, 81, loi; Philip, 78, 91; 

Robert, 11, 65, 66, 70, 398, 434 
Lloyd, Dr. S. Louis, see Sand Springs, 

177, 471 

Lockport, N. Y., 450, 451 

Lon, Jan C. N., 228 

London, Eng., 94, 467; London Colo- 
nization Society, 422; London 
Documents, 62 

Londonderry, Ireland, 67, 219, 436; 
Londonderry, N. H., 351 

Longueuil, Canada, 307 

Loomis, Harvey, 409, 419, 422 

Lords of Trade, 104, 274 

Lossing, Benson J., 436 

Lottery tickets, 282, 383 

Lotze's philosophy, 504 

Louis XIV., King of France, 71 

Louisburgh, N. S., see Fort "Gibral- 
tar," 80, 208 

Lounsbury, Thomas, 263, 264, 265 

Loups, 25, 516 

Lovatt, John, 210; Samuel, 132, 433 

Lovelace, Gov. Francis, 43, 44, 65; 
Gov. John, 90 

Low, Capt., Volunteers, 329 

Lowell, Mass., 441 

Lowell, John, 70 

Loyalists, see Tories, 341, 342 

Lutherans, 230, 231, 246 

Lydius, Col., 151; John H., 81 

Lyman, Lieut.-CoL, 153, 154, 157; 
Joseph, 392 

Lyon, Mary, 397 

M 

Mabie, Hamilton Wright, 494 

Mack, Dominie, 98 

Mackay, ^neas and Samuel, 384 

Mackimoodus, 106 

Madison, Dolly, 270 



570 



Index 



Madison, James, 152, 268, 445 
Maessen, Hendrick, see Van Buren, 

III 
Mague, 106 

Mahicans, ii, vi, 10, 22, 23, 24, 32, 
39, 41, 46, 52, 62, 88, 428, 482, 483, 
511-522 
Manchester, N. H., 333, 351; Man- 
chester, Vt., 28, 29, 204, 343, 476 
Manconttanshal, Sachem, 61 
MandoHn, Tom, 254, 268 
Manorlands of Hoosac Valley, 64 
Manning, Capt. John,62; John H., 467 
Manitou (Good Spirit), 18, 53, 134, 

483-513 
Manitou-aseniah (Spirit-stones), 6, 

8, 41, 64, 115, 116 
Manitoulin burial-field, see Tawa- 

sentha, 41, 106 
Mather, Rev. Cotton, vi, 218 
Matthew, The Tory, 206, 224, 225 
Matthew, Capt., House, 342, 345 
Mapleton,_N. ¥.,233,245, 290,438, 480 
Maps, xxiii, xxiv, 21, 23, 63 
Maquon, Hero, iv, 15, 16, 18, 22, 24, 

25, 28, 29, 34, 39, 45, 48, 49, 53, 55, 

65, 66, 74, 84, 515, 516 
March Cataract, 503 
Marcy, Moses, 170 
Marin, Col. M., 80, 81, 82 
Marsh, Lieut. -Gov. Joseph, 373 
Marshall, Chief -Justice, 394; Abram 

Marshall house, 353; Father, 216, 

418 
Marvin, Capt. Ebenezer, 282, 286 
Massachusetts, iv, 24, 62, 70; Mass, 

Board of Education, 471; Mass. 

Mission Society, 421; Massachu- 
setts Sentmel, 382 
Masterlandt, Holland, 92, 488 
Maurice, Prince, 60 
Mauritius River, 60, 517 
Mawwehu, Sachem, 46, 47, 49, 97, 

98, 107, 108 
Mayflower, ship, 24, 59, 483 
Mayoonsac River, 28, 68, 69, 127, 

150, 184, 186, 199, 442, 459, 460, 

472,496,519 
McCosh, Dr. James, 381 
McCrea, Jane, massacre, 326 
McCullough, Gov. John G., 458 
McGilligan, Father, 426 
McGinnis, Capt., 155, 157 
McKinley, William, 196, 462, 473, 

474. 475 



McVicar, Lieut. Duncan, 261, 272, 

273,286 
Meacham, Jonathan, 166; William 

M., 169 
Meack, Dr. Jacob, 173, 435 
Mechanicsville, N. Y., 258, 437, 458, 

470 
Mellen, Peter, iii; William, farm, 

336, 346; Thomas, 340, 343, 344 
Mellen Bridge, 335 
Memoirs of an Americafi Lady, see 

Anna McVicar-Grant 
Merrimac River, Mass., 499 
Merritt, C. N., 454; Charles H., 480 
Metcom, Sachem, 46 
Mey, Capt. Cornelius Jacobsen, 19, 

59 

Miami hunting-grounds, 39, 98 

Michaelous, Dominic. 20 

Middlebury, Coll., Vt., 296, 420 

Middletown, Ct., 215 

Mill Centres of Hoosac Valley, 437 

Mills, Sr., Rev. Samuel J., 389, 410 

Mills, Jr., Samuel J., see Haystack 
Prayer-meeting a7id Missions, 266, 
389, 408, 409, 410, 411, 419, 420, 
421, 422, 423, 427, 431; Mills Park, 
see Mission Park, 425 

Miller, Rev. Alexander, 216, 418; 
Col. Samuel, 163 

Miller River, Mass., 451 

Mills, Prof. R. F., 179 

Mingos, 31, 49 

Minichqua, Sachem, 22, 24, 86, 512 

Minot, James, 163 

Minsi Race (Wolves), 22, 25, 511, 

513-515 
" Minute Men, " 179, 192, 3i3- 538-540 
Missions, Foreign, 409, 410, 411, 420, 

42 1 , 425 ; Home, 412, 42 1 , 422, 424 
Mission Monument, see "Haystack 

Monument, " 409, 41 1 
Mission Park, see Mills Park, 409, 411, 

427, 594 
Mississippi Valley, 40, 98 
Missisquoi River, Vt., 98 
Mitchell, Dr. Jno., 63, 271; Samuel 

L. Mitchell, 387 
Mnoti, 53 

Modoc, advent of, 14 
Moenemines Castle, iv, 25, 27, 31, 

43, 61, 64, 65 
Mogg Megone, Sachem, 77 
Mohawks, iii, 19, 24, 43, 52, 55, 62, 

88, III, 428, 429, 511, 522-525 



Index 



571 



Mohawk River and Valley, 31, 65, 

119, 247, 352, 434, 451, 522-525 
Mohegoneck River, 26, 108, 512, 516 
Money Brook, see Hopper, 500, 501, 

502 
Monitor, iron-clad, 444 
Monongahela River, 156 
Montague, John, 214, 418; Samuel, 

214, 216, 218 
Montcalm, Gen., 364 
Montesquieu's Spirit of Laws, vi, 

368 
Montgomery, Gen. Richard, 307 
Montreal, Canada, iii, 81, loi, 307, 

376, 457 
Montressor, Col. James, 353 
Motiument Mountain, 8, 28, 46, 120, 

522 
Moravians, 29, 84, 98, 116 
Morris Academy, Ct., 419 
Morris, Frederick, 120; Gouverneur, 

355. 356; Hamilton, 193; Lewis R., 

377; Dr. Philip Van Ness, 266; 

Robert, 355 
Moodus, 8, 10, 20, 31, 483 
Moody Bridge (River Bend Ford), 

29, 127,177 
Moon Hollow, 70, 163 
Moore, Gov. Henry, 276, 277. 278, 

542, 543 
Moore, Rev. Zephaniah vSwift, 226, 

392, 393- 394, 395- 396- 397; Lieut. 

Judah, 226, 393 
Moore, Thomas, 40, 41, 390, 481, 486 
Moor, Rev. Thoroughgood, 93 
Moreau, N. Y., 223 
Morgan, Gen. Daniel, 357, 358, 359, 

360 
IVIorgan, Gilbert, 267; William R. 

218 
Mormons, 418 
Morra, Dav., 270 
Moses, Dr. Salmon, 243 
"Mother Anne," see Queen Anne, 95 
Mott, Capt. Edward, 295, 296, 298, 

304 
Mountain Day, Williams Coll., 401, 

402, 403, 504 
Mowbray, Prof. George, 455 
Muir, John, 482 
Mumford, Thomas, 294 
Munroe, John, 273, 286 
Munsell, Hezekiah, 249 
Murphy, Timothy, 361 
Murray, Col. John, 187, 191 



N 



Nach-a-quick-quack, 84 

Nack-te-nack, 64 

Nana Apen-Ahican Creek, 28, 46 

Nanfan, Lieut. -Gov. John, 76 

Narragansetts, 26, 46, 50, 52, 55 

Narrington, Peace of, 32 

Natural Bridge, 28; Natural Dam, 

Lake Bascom, 6, 135 
Nawaas, 23, 24 
Nawanemit, vSachem, 61 
Negro slaves, 416; missionaries, 410; 

festivals, 414, 415 
Neilson, John, 353 
Nelson, John, 420 
Nepimore Vale (Shingle Hollow), 109, 

118, 237, 438, 519 
Nesbit, Robert, 196 
New Amsterdam, 31, 59 
New Antioch, Western Hemisphere, 

411,425,510 
Newark, N. J., 397, 421, 422 
New Ashford, Mass., 171, 327,506 
New Brunswick, N. S., 403 
Newburyport, Mass., 410 
"New Connecticut" (Vt.), 321 
Newell, Samuel, 420, 423 
New England, iii, 60, 88, 184, 322, 

341- 399- 481 
New England Magazine, 205, 410, 486 
New Framingham, Mass., 171 
New France (Canada), iii, 34, 124, 

152 

New Hampshire Grants, iv, 167 

New Haven, Ct., 171, 412 

New Lebanon vSprings, N. Y., 153, 

177,231,416,432, 434 
"New Lights" (Separates), 214, 215, 

216 
New London, Ct., 26, 237 
NewMilford, Ct., 171 
New Netherlands, iii, vi, 23, 24, 32, 

34, 44, 45, 58, 60, 62, 92, 102, 423 
Newport, R. L, 188, 410 
New Schaghticoke (Kent), Ct., 55, 

98, 107 
Newton, Ct., 295; Newton, Mass., 67 
New York Colony, 44, 62; New York 

City, 112, 121, 421, 434, 462, 467, 

468 
New York Everting Post, 432; New 

York Hist. Soc. and Library, 102, 

392 

Niagara Falls, 4 



572 



Ind 



ex 



Nichols, Rev. Caleb, 221, 224 

Nichols, Col., N. H., Reg. 78, 337, 340 

Nicolls, Col. Richard, 34, 62, 115; 
George, 115 

Nicholas, Father, 36; William, 115 

Nicholson, Gen. Francis, 78, 94; 
Fort, 78 

" Nigger-Whippers, " 414 

Niles, Jonathan, 188, 221; Rev. 
Solomon, 410; Rev. Dr. Nathaniel, 
324, 410, 435, 436; George, 220, 
221; Dr. Louis Edward, 485 

Nims, Elisha, 130, 203 

Niskayuna, N.^Y., 15 

Nitro-glycerine, 455 

Noble, Capt. Eli, 224, 279, 286, 295, 
338; Capt. Enoch, 329; Judge 
Daniel, 244, 451; Rev. Daniel, 180, 

382, 383. 387, 392, 393. 394, 414; 
Dai:iel, 244; Sylvester, 244, 245, 
480 
Norfolk Co., Va., 376; Norfolk, Ct., 

384 
Normal College (North Adams), 

Mass., 473 
Norman's Kill, N. Y., 28 
Norridgewock, Me., 76 
Norris, Mary, 421 
North Adams, Mass., first surveys 

(1739-1749). 69, 162, 184, 186, 191, 

199, 200, 201, 294, 387, 427, 442, 

443, 445, 451, 452, 453, 45^, 459, 
468, 470, 473, 481, 487, 496, 506; 
incorporation, 472; churches, 185, 
195, 196. 472; schools, 198, 472, 
473; library, 148; inns, 185, 201, 
202, 448, 498; manufactures, 458 

Northampton, Mass., 392, 393, 434 

North Bennington, Vt., 214, 219, 494; 
churches, 427, 464, 478; manu- 
factures, 466 

North Egremont, N. Y., 157 

North Farm, 224 

Northfield (Squakeag), Mass., 46, 
48, 70, 114, 140, 187, 484 

North Hoosac, N. Y., 454 

North Pownal, Vt., 121, 137, 480 

Northrup, Jonathan, 237 

Northwest Hill, 70, 295 

Norton, Rev. John, 131, 132, 138, 
139, 140, 141; Journal, 144, 529; 
grave, 142; Blount, 506 

Norton, Jos., 228, 464 

Norwich, Eng., 145; Norwich, Ct., 
213,216 



Notch Valley and Brook, 186, 187, 

200, 496, 497, 443, 506 
Nott, Rev. Samuel, 420, 423 
Nyack Bay, N. Y., 34 
Nye, James W., 249 



o 



Oakes's Flora of Vt., 389 

O'Brien Patent, 274 

Ochserantogue Tract (Saratoga), ~6, 

31,43,64 
CEta, Mount (Mason Hill), Vt., 9, 

136,493 
Ohio Valley, 39, 98, 443 
Old Hundred, 2T,y 
"Old Lights," 214 
Old Schaghticoke, N. Y., 83-108 
Old South Church, 382 
"Old Yellow House," 223, 224 
Olin, Giles, 220, 227, 445; Judge, 267 
Olive Branch, ship, 378 
Onakee Hill, 29 
Onderkirk, Cornelius, 65; Jacob, 115, 

117, 233, 341; Oldert, 65, 231 
Onetho, 484, 509, 513, 525 
Onion River (Winooski), Vt., 288, 373 
Onota, see Lakes. 
Onondagas, Antinathin-Enanthayon- 

ni Races, 53; Council, 74 
Ontarios, 100 
Oothout, Jan, iii, 115, 117; Hans 

Reiner, 1 1 5 
Orcombreight, Sachem, Stockbridges, 

29, 415, 416 

Ordovician Age, 8 

Origins in William stowti, 125, 126, 

132, 139, 140, 143, 144, 145, 152, 

153, 155, 156, 169, 174, 381, 525, 

526, 527, 528, 529, 530, 531, 532, 

533, 534, 535, 536, 537, 53^, 543- 

544 
Origins of Indian names, 511-525 
Oriskany, victory of, 354, 356 
Ormond, Duke of, 94 
Orontes River, Old Antioch, Syria, 

409, 510 
Osborne, Capt. Thomas, 250 
Osceola, Sachem, 49, 97 
Oswald, Capt., 300 
Otis, Col. James, 187, 191 
Otley, Prof., 388 
Otter Creek, Vt., 112, 133 
Outlawry Act, N. Y., 288 
Owens, Abel, 248 



Index 



573 



Owl Kill Valley, N. Y., v, 8, go, 109, 
11^, 123, 136, 243, 252, 256, 257, 
332 ; industries, 438, 440 

Oxford, N. H., 194 



Paensick Kill, N. Y., 66 
Paep-Sikenekomtas, Sachem, 61 
Page, Dr. William, 180, 315 
Paine, Thomas, 372, 413, 416, 417 
Pakard, Theophilus, 393 
Palmer, Father, 216, 418 
Pan, Jim and Hen, 107, 108 
Pan-Hoosac (Lansingburgh, N. Y.), 

28 
Panther, Wyandotte, 326 
Paper-Mill Village (Bennington Falls), 

464 
Paran Creek (Haviland Brook), 120, 

214, 220 
Park, Luther, 228; Rev. Paul, 216, 

418; Trenor W., 228, 458, 464 
Parker, Capt. Enos, 192, 193, 329; 

Capt. Didmus, 193; Giles, 193; 

Oliver, 190, 193, 199, 200; Linus, 

329, 342 

Parkman, Francis, 55, 134 
Parsippary Negro Missionary School, 

422 
Parsons, Al^raham, see Uncle Abe- 

thc-Bunter, 415, 416, 417 
Parsons, Col. Samuel H., 294; Seth, 

443. 445, 448; Theophilus, 70 
Partridge, Col. Oliver, 162, 166, 168, 

186, 187; Dr. Oliver, 342 
Pass-Apenock Island, 28 
Passaconawav, Sachem, 23, 24, 25, 

31,46 
Passquassic Patent (Greenbush), 66 
Patchin, Dr. Aaron Drake, 243 
Patroons of Dutch Hooesac and 

Hoosac, 118, 238 
Patterson, Col. John, 180, 332 
Paul, Truman, 198, 398 
Pausch, Capt., Battery, 358 
Pawtucket, Mass., 24 
Payne, Samuel, 1 72 
Peace of Paris, 126 
Pelham, Mass., 67 
Pennacooks, Soqui-Minsi Races, iii, 

iv, 23, 24, 31, 37, 46, 47, 50, 52 

55, 88, 98 
Penobscot Castle 32, 151 
Penock (Concord, N. H.), 24, 46 



' Pepperell, Gen. William, 80, 206, 208 

Perry, Prof. Arthur Latham, 128, 

142, 146, 147, 158, 160, 203, 408, 

427, 503 
Perry, Bliss, 180; Grace, 182; John, 

132, 141, 142, 143, 147, 169 
Peters, Col., 241, 326, 330, 337 
Peters, Gen. Absalom, 412; Rev. 

Absalom, 219, 412, 413, 422, 476; 

Rev. Hugh, 322, 412; Rev. Samuel, 

322 
Petersburgh, N. Y., 119, 141, 197, 

230, 231, 438; town-meeting, 246, 

247, 248 
Petersburgh Junction, (Hoosac) 

N. Y., 118, 167, 233,458 
Petaguanset Treaty, 49, 50 
Petonboque, 55, 112 
Pequots (Turkeys), Unalachti-Minsi 

Races, iii, 24, 46, 52, 55, 107 
Pequot War, 28 
Phelps, Col. John W., 427 
Phelps, Capt. Noah, 295, 296, 298, 

302 
Philadelphia, Penn., 39, 397, 434, 

474 
Philip, Gen., 359 
Philip's, King, War, 26, 46, 47, 48, 

49, 50 
Philologian Society, 386 
Philotechnian Society, 386, 389, 392 
Phipps, Lieut. -Gov. Spencer, 151, 

163, 168, 169, 170 
Phcebe Brook, 416 
Phoenix Mills, 200 
Picquet, Abbe Frangois, 80 
Pidgeon, Daniel, 449 
Pierce, William, 452 
Pierron, Father, 36 
Pilgrim Church, 59, 205 
Pinxster Festival, 415, 416 
Piscawen Kill, N. Y., 65 
Pishgachticok (Schaghticoke), 55 
Pitcairn, Maj., 291 
Pittsburgh, Penn., 467 
Pittsfield, Mass., 146, 177, 199, 328, 

382, 384, 386, 393, 397, 448, 449, 

452, 470, 471, 486, 506 
Pittsfield Gymnasium, 399 
Pittsford, Vt., 279, 296 
Pittstown, N. Y., Patents, 10, 244, 

255, 256; town-meeting, 265; 

churches, 259, 260; inns, 265; in- 
dustries, 434, 438 
Plainfield, Ct., 418 



574 



Index 



Plank, Jacob Albertzen, 6i, no 
Piatt, the stage-driver, 486, 497 
Plattsburgh, N. Y., 250 
Plunkett, Gen. W. C, 458, 461 
Pomeroy, Lieut. -Col. Seth, 154, 157; 

Rufus, 420; Thaddeus, 392 
Pompanac, pumpkin-fields, 29, 47 
Pontoosac (Pittsfield), Mass., 30, 67, 

147. 522 

Poor, Gen., 359 

Porter, Dr. William, 332, 387 

Porter, William D., 400, 406, 497; 
Captain, 154 

Portsmouth, Eng., 226; Portsmouth, 
N. H., 210, 281 

Post, Dr., Post's Corners, 266 

Post Road inns, 244 

Potic Village, N. Y., 47 

Potomac River, 434 

Potter, Amos, 262, 272; Maj. John, 
233, 236, 244; Bishop Horatio, 478 

Poultney River, N. Y., 136 

Powell, Jeremiah, 348 

Pownall, John, 64; Gov. Thomas, 210 

Pownal, Vt., 61, 69, 167, 169, 187, 
205, 322, 365, 412, 432, 438, 439, 
451, 467, 493; charter, 118, 167, 
226, 231; town-meeting, 210; 
churches, 211, 221, 480; militia, 
274, 279, 280 

Pownal Centre, Vt., 470, 471 

Pow-wow, Schaghticokes, 103 

Pratt, "Bill," the saw-buck philo- 
sopher, 402; Silas, 150, 166, 171, 
210; William, 171; Samuel and 
Timothy, 211, 213 

Prendergast, William, 255 

Prentiss, Elizabeth Payson, 502 

Prescott, Gen., 308 

Preston, Ct., 418 

"Prince of Erie," 467 

"Prince" Knickerbacker, 268, 269 

Prindle, Charles (River Bend Tav- 
ern), 171 

Privateering, 387 

Proctor, Redfield, 310; H. F. Proctor, 
Mansion, 168 

Prohibition laws, 45, 179 

Prospect Range, 500, 506 

Providence, R. I., 180, 195, 442 

Provincial Congress, N. Y., 306, 314 

Pruyn, Frank, 93 

Pubui (hatchet), 53 

Pudding-stone Cliffs (Weeping 
Rocks), 36 



Pumpkin Hook (White Creek), N. Y. 

29, 97; mill centre, 437, 440, 445 
Puritans, 59 
Putnam, Asa, 181; Henry W. 228; 

Gen. Israel, 291, 307, 420; Peter 

vSchuyler, 266, 291, 420; John Pope 

266, 291; Perley, 182 



Q 



Quackenbosch (Quackenl)ush), Adri- 

ance and Wouter, 91; Johannes, 

117, 233, 259; Sybrant, 105, 255 
Quakers (Society of Friends): Adams, 

196, 197, 442, 474; Cambridge, 262, 

263; Pittstown, 260 
Quebec, Canada, 76, loi, 131, 141, 

142; Fall of, 124 
Queechv, Lake, Kinderhook Valley, 

N. Y"., 434 
Queen Anne's War, 76, 77, 84, 90, 102 
Queen Esther of Schaghticokes-St. 

Regis Canton, 98, 255 
Queen \'inie of Schaghticokes- 

Pequots, 107 
Quequick Falls, N. Y., 29 
"Quider," see Col. Pieter Schuyler, 75 
Quinc3^ Josiah, 396 
Quit-rents, 84 
Quock Island, N. Y., 82 



R 



Ragged Mountains (Greylock Range), 

457, 486, 487, 506 
Rainbow Bridge, 243 
Rale's, Father Sebastian, War, 47, 76, 

77. 114, 157 
Rambout, Pierre, 143 
Rathburn, Rev. David, 245 
Rattlesnake Brook. 70, 120 
Rauch, Rev. Christian Henr>', 98 
Raven Rock Peak, 506; Road, 186, 

187, 189, 203, 443 
Rawnsley's English Lakes, 388 
Read, Elinor, 226; Rev. Hollis, 226, 

419, 476; Josiah, 132, 141, 142 
Recrmting Officer, loi 
Red Hook, N. Y., 258 
Reid, Col. Mills, 288 
Renfrew, James, Mills, 462 
Rensselaerwyck Manor, 61, 62, 64, 

109, no, 115, 119, 120, 230, 231, 

232, 233; military district, 235 



Index 



575 



Rensselaers' Mills, 233, 234 
Rensselaer Plateau or Plains, 7, 8, 10, 

117 
Rensselaer's Polytechnic Institute, 

452 

Rensselaer, Saratoga, and Ballston 
Spa., Railraod, 452 

Rensselaer's Woollen- and Cotton- 
mills, 441 

Revolution, American, 70 

Reynolds, Cuyler, Albany Chrotiicles, 
14, 233, 291, 292; Jeremiah, 260; 
William, 235 

Reynolds Road and Station, N. Y., 

86, 95, 259 
Rhinebeck, N. Y., 124 
Rhodes, John, 236, 246, 437 
Rhode Island Baptists, 200, 232, 498 
Rhone Valley, France, 495 
Rice, Senator Harvey R., 425, 426; 

Jerome B., 440; Maj. Loring, 460; 

Luther, 420, 423; Capt. Moses, 79, 

130, 186, 211, 300, 448; R. Niles, 

438; Samuel, 186 
Richards, James, 409, 419, 420, 423 
Richardson, "Al," 448 
Richey, Dr. Hugh, 116, 243 
Richfield, Mass., 441 
Richmond, A. E., 185, 202, 499; John 

227 
Richmond, Mass., 328 
Rider, Dickerman, 476 
Riedesel, Gen., 300, 325, 326, 330, 357, 

358, 359, 362 
Rigaud, Gen., (De Vaudreuil) 81, 82, 
100, 117, 119, 122, 132, 133, 134, 

.135, 136, 137, 139, 141, 143, 183 

Rittenhouse, David, 70 

River Bend Camp, 28, 30, 127, 141, 
172 

River Bend Tavern, 179, 181, 329 

"River Gods," 186 

River Indians, scouts, 88, 93 

Riverside (Irish Corners), Benning- 
ton, Vt., 214, 219, 282 

Robbins, Rev. Ammi Ruhaniah, 384 

Robbins, Francis L., 409, 419, 420 

Robinson, Rev. John (Leyden Pil- 
grims), 59, 204, 205 

Robinson, ist, Samuel, 204; Capt. 
Samuel, 2d, 204, 205, 208, 211, 213, 
214, 273, 277, 278, 317, 418; Capt. 
Samuel, 3d, 211, 217, 278, 323, 
337, 345, 347, 543, 544- 546, 547; 
Leonard, 211, 278; Gov. Moses, 



220, 229, 278, 374, 376, 432, 433; 

Gov. John, 229, 445; Aaron, 212; 

Beverly, 374; Daniel, 554; David, 

212, 219: Dr. Ebenezer, 246; 

George Wadsworth, 219; Melvin 

H., 547 
Rochester, N. Y., 444, 474 
Rockingham, Vt., 330 
Rockwell, Col., 506 
Rockwood, George, 444, 464 
Rogers, David C, 460; James, 220 

332; John, 412; Col. Robert, 428 

Thomas, 353; Rev. Samuel, 245 

Harper, 233, 242 
Roman Catholic, Irish and French 

parishes, 16, 42, 71, 74, 139, 158, 

426, 427 
Romans, Bernard, 295, 296 
Roosevelt, Theodore, 408 
Root, Elihu, 408 
Rossiter, David, 328 
Rounds's Rocks, 506 
Rowland, Samuel, 255 
Rowley, Capt. Aaron, 328; Thomas, 

Satire, 289 
Roxbury, Mass., 145 
Royal Exchange Tavern, 187 
Rudd, Lieut. Joseph, 218, 240, 278, 

342, 346, 548, 549 
Ruggles, Col., 204 
Rumsey, James, 434 
Russell, Nathaniel, 226 
Rutkers, Harmon, 65 
Rutland, Vt., 279, 296 
Rutland Railroad, 457 
Ruttenber's Indian Tribes of Hudson 

River, 37, 86, 513 
Ryan, John, 233, 245; James, Mills, 

264 
Ryton River, Eng., 205 



Sabrevois, vSieur, 137 

Sachem, Great (King), 16, 513 

Sacred Heart (French Catholic Par- 
ish), 426 

Sacrificial offerings (Indians), 40 

Saddleback, 486 

Safford, E. B., 310; Col. David, 287; 
Capt. Jacob, 314, 344; Col. Joseph, 
213, 218, 278, 287, 314; Lieut.-Col. 
Samuel, 212, 218, 222, 314 

Safford's Mills (Bennington), Vt., 
219, 227 



576 



Index 



Sage, Moses, 220, 227, 445, 446; 

Russell, 220 
vSage's City (No. Bennington), Vt., 

220, 445, 446 
Ragisquwa, Sachem, 61 
Salem, Mass., 188, 421; Salem, N. Y., 

182,286,437 
Salisbury, Ct., 183, 293, 295, 443 
Sanders, R.obert, 65, 66, 67, 81, 90 
Sand Hills, 4, 6, 28, 30, 326 
Sand Springs, Wampanoags, 28, 30, 

470 
Sanford & Brown, 228 
Sanford, Samuel, 26, 176 
Sannahagog Tracts, 25, 61 
Saratoga, Lake, fishing-grounds, 8, 19, 

26, 28, 36, 45, 436; Manors, 

37, 38, 67, 112, 353, 355 
Saratoga Battle, 192, 352, 353, 354, 

357. 358, 359. 360, 361, 367 
Sarum, Eng., 192 
Satterlee, Rev. William, 235 
Saunders's school books, 476, 478 
Sawyer, Isaac, 256 
Saxe, Gen. Marshall, 161 
Saxony (merino) sheep, 188, 249 
Saxton, Dr., 468 
Saybrook, Ct., 67 
Schaahtecogue Canton (Schaghti- 

coke), 31, 43,67, 83, 88 
Schaets, Rev. Gideon, 54 
Schaghticokes (Hoosacs - Housaton- 

acs), 29, 43, 47, 52, 55, 77, 96, 

98, 102, 104, 105, 114, 120, 128, 

130, 140, 150, 151, 169, 186, 428; 

burial-fields, 56, 86, 104, 490 
Schaghticoke Mountain (Kent), Ct., 

30, 55. 107 
e:jhaghticoke Plains, N. Y., 255, 488 
Schaghticoke Manors, 88, 90, 258, 

415; Dutch Church, 95, loi, 252; 

military districts, 251, 256 
Schaghticoke, N. Y., 437, 442, 444, 

454, 458, 470, 507; town-meeting, 

263; churches, 25^, 263, 480; inns, 

264; industries, 468 
lichaghticoke Hill, 264; Hart's Falls, 

II, 251, 263,481; East Schaghti- 
coke, 106, 481 
Schemerhorn, Rev. J. T., 421 
Schenck, Wessel, 58 
Schenectady Massacre, 71, 74, 75, 77 
Schenectady, N. Y., 434, 452 
Schipman, Sr., Nathaniel Bumppo 

(Shipman & Chipman), 237; Capt 



Nathaniel, Jr., 286; Capt. John; 
Patience, see John Ryan 
Schneider, Hendrick (Snyder) Pi, tent, 
153. 223, 224, 231, 232; Capt. John 

313-314 
Schodac Capitol, Abenakis Democ- 
racy, iv, 16, 22, 23, 28, 32 
Schoharie Tract (Maquaas) 95 
vSchuyler, Capt. Abraham, 94; John 
Bradstreet, 384; David Davidse, 
66, 88, 90, 91; Capt. Johannes, 74, 
75; Col. Pietcr, 66, 75, 78, 82, 83, 
90, 94; Philipsen Pietersen, 64, 66; 
Maj.-Gen. Philip, 292, 307, 315, 
316, 317, 318, 323, 352, 354, 355, 

359 
Schuyler Mills Massacre, 80, 81 
vSchuylerville Manor, N. Y., tenants, 

353, 384, 434; mansion, 362, 366; 

mills, 336, 354 
Scott, Col. Olin., 227, 445, 462, 464; 

Phineas, 218, 398; Gen. Winfield, 

352 

Scudder, Samuel H., 502, 503 

Seal of Free School, 383 

Seal of "Tunnel City," 472 

Searles, Capt. Isaac, 3.S6 

Sedgewick, Catherine, 414, 500; Gen. 
Charles Frederick, 405; Henry, 
Dwight, and Robert, 390, 398, 408; 
Theodore, 382, 414; Prof. vSedge- 
wick, 388 

Seelye, Ephraim, 178, 210, 279 

Seminoles' Revolution, 97 

Seneca Chief, canal boat, 451 

Separatism (Srict Congregational- 
ism), 59, 71, 205, 418 

Serampore Baptist Colony, 423 

Sergeant, Erastus, 317; Rev. Jona- 
than, 29, 32, 67, 119 

Success, ship, 422 

Severance, Lieut., 147 

Seven Years' War, 82 

Seward, John, 420 

Shackburg, Dr., 364 

Shaftsbury, Vt., 205, 214, 225, 
272, 273, 286, 334, 340, 414; char- 
ter, 220, 262; church, 221, 290; 
iron ore, 220, 445 

Shaking Quakers (Ann Lee's Soc.),4i8 

Shanly, F., & Brother, contractors, 
Hoosac Tunnel, 456 

Shaw, Henry ("Josh Billings"), 399, 
442 

Shays's Rebellion, 198, 199 



Index 



577 



Sheffield, Mass., 29, 32, 67, 119, 

382 
Shelburne, Lord, 277, 366, 542, 543 
Shelburne, Mass., 392, 393 
Sheldon, Dr. Remember, 387 
Shepherd, Rev. Samuel, 392 
Sheridan, Gen., 427 
Sherrel, E. W., contractor, Hoosac 

Tunnel, 454 
Sherwood, Lorenze, 249 
Shield's District, iron ore, 220 
"Shingle Hollow" (Nepiniore Vale), 

109,118,237,519 
Shippee, Capt. Amos, 198, 199 
Shirley, Gov. William, 80, 146, 152, 

153. 166 
Shirley's War (King George's War), 

79, 146 

Shonowe Castle, Kryn's, 34 
Shoreham, Vt., 296, 298, 302 
Sibley, Benjamin, 444 
Sickles, Thomas, 236, 241, 242, 244; 

Zachariah, 241, 242 
Sickles's Mills (Clark's Mills and 

Walloomsac), Hoosac, N. Y., 346 
Sickousson, Sachem, 61 
Sigourney, Lydia Huntley, 43, 83, 486 
Silliman, Prof., 387 
Silurian Bay, 4, 10 
Simm's Frontiersmen, 366 
Simons, Peter, 234, 238 
Simonds, Col. Benjamin, 132, 141, 

142, 143, 166, 168, 174, 17H, i«3. 

315. 330, 383; taverns, 171, 172, 

177, 211, 224, 225, 419; mihtia, 

180, 319, 320, 321, 327, 332, 337, 

341, 447; Polly and Prudence, 182; 

Rachel, 171, 182 
Simonds Peak, 500, 501, 506 
Simsbury Mines, Ct., 347 
Sioux Nation, missions, 428 
Six Nations, Iroquois Confederacy, 27 
Skatecook Creek, vi, 30, 43, 55, 84, 

88,119,518 
Skeetecook, 30, 55, 74, 517 
Skene, Col. Philip, 136, 301, 325, 343, 

344; Mountain, 98, 136 
Skenesboro Manor, 296, 298; navy 

yard, 180 
Skinner, Calvin, 260; Benjamin, 387; 

Dr. Joseph Thompson, 246; Gen. 

Thompson Joseph, 382, 387, 389; 

Skinner's Mansion House, 178 
Sky Falls (Money Brook), 503, 506, 

508 
37 



"Slab City" (No. Adams), 184, 199, 

200, 442, 498 
Slavery, 244, 245, 265, 409, 410, 414 
Sloan, Capt. Samuel, 171, 174, 179, 

387, 491, 432; Musket ]\Ien, 179, 

192; muster roll, 538, 539, 540 
Slocum's Giles, cotton-niill (first in 

U. S.), 440, 445, 469 
Sluyter, Rev. Pieter, 65 
vSmack Island, 61 
Smead, John and Mary, 132, 141, 142, 

143. 144; "Captivity," 6, 141, 142, 

144 

Smedley, Aaron, 471 ; John, Mill, 172, 
177, 180, 315; Levi, 211, 387; Capt. 
Nehemiah, 168, 173, 176, 178, 211, 
212, 300, 327 

Smith, Abiel, 190; Alphine, 202, 448; 
Rev. Daniel, 421; Capt, John, 60; 
John, 286; Jonathan, 190, 241, 442; 
Melancthon, 70; Noah, 374; Rev. 
Samuel, 259; Sir Thomas, 18; Wil- 
liam, 376, 432, 439; Capt. Smith's 
militia, 327; Dr. Smith's Collection 
of American Poetry, 371 

vSnake warriors, 20 

Society, Propagation of Gospel, 277; 
Society United Brethren, 409; 
Society Promoting Arts, 436 

Sodom (Shaftsbury), Vt., 332; Stark 
paper-mill, 464 

vSoldiers' Home, Vt., 464, 465 

Solebay Battle, 92, 115 

Solomon, Capt., militia, 329 

"Sons of Freedom, " viii, 205 

Soqui Race (Bears), Abenakis Democ- 
racy, 22 

Soquon, Owl of Soqui Race, iv, 15, 
16, 20, 22, 25, 29, 31, 34, 36, 39, 
47, 48, 49, 52. 53, 55, 56, 66, 74, 
84, 88, 90, 93, 94, 102 

Southwestern Vermont Valley, i, 4 

Spanish Dollar, 502 

Specht, Col., 361, 362 

Spenser, Edmund, 127 

Spirit-dove, see Wakon-bird, 41, 116 

Spirit-stones, see Manitou-aseniah, 41 , 
116 

" wSpook Hollow" legends, 91, 255, 488 

Spooner, Paul, 329, 330 

Sprague, poet, 14 

Spring, Dr. Samuel, 420 

Springfield (Aga warn), Mass., 48, 151, 

375, 382, 451, 484^ , „ 
"Sprouts of the Mohawk, 70, 355 



5/8 



Index 



Squakheag (Northficld), IMass., 49 
Squires, Truman, 281, 283; Buckley 

228 
St. Agnes Creek (Kent), Ct., 98, 108 
St. Ange (Nastagione), 14, 15, 16, 478, 

495 

St. Anthony Kill, 65, 66, 77 

St. Antoine of Padua, (Anthony), 

Mount, 16, 40, 495 
St. Clair, Gen. Arthur, 324, 354 
St. Croix (Holy Cross), 14, 16,34, I39i 

255, 477, 478, 519 
St. Croix Bridge, 243, 438, 495, 519 
St. Croix Manor, N. Y., 102, 112, 

116, 119, 122, 123, 124, 126, 236 
St. Croix Mills (Van Schaick Mills), 

115, 117, 330, 331, 332, 441 
St. Francis Indian Ledge, 8, 127, 129, 

138, 147, 148, 187, 191 
St. Francis River, 47, 104 
St. Francis warriors, 48, 76, 77, 80, 

103, 104, 105, 114, 122, 123, 128, 

130, 133, 134. 139, 140. 147- 151, 
152, 154, 155, 161, 167, 428 

St. Frangois warriors, 114 

vSt. Johns, Canada, 123, 306, 307 

St. Johns, Hon., Paris, 372 

»St. Lawrence Valley, iii, 34, 44, 141, 

307, 390; St. Lawrence Gulf, 4 
St. Leger, Col. Barry, 326, 354 
St. Luc, Lieut. Le Corne, 81 
St. Onetho, 16 
St. Regis warriors, 77, 102, 105, 106, 

114, 128, 134, 157 
Staats, Abraham, 34; Lieut, Jochem, 

67 
Stafford, Capt. Joab, 192, 329 

Stafford Hill (Cheshire), Mass., 192 
Stage-coach days, 185, 432, 448, 

449 
Stamford, Vt., 195, 323, 473 
Stamp Act, 274, 276, 277 
Stannard, Gen. George J., 424 
vStanwood, Capt. David, 280 
Stark, Rev. Dyer, 195; Godfrey, 242; 

Inn, 227; paper-mill, 464 
Stark, Brig. -Gen. John, 182, 183, 193, 
220, 224, 318, 322, 323, 325, 327, 
331, 332, 333, 336, 337, 33«, 34", 
341, 343, 346, 347, 34«, 35", 35 1, 
354, 356, 359, 362, 363, 447 ; Mount, 

471 
Starkweather, William, 386 
Stars and Stripes, viii, 267, 364 
Staten Island, N. Y., 484 



Steamboats, 434 

Stephentown, N. Y., 231 

Stevens, "Jim," 448 

vStewart, Capt. Lemuel, 382 

Stickncy, Col., 337, 341 

Stiles, Rev. Ezra, 410, 412 

Stillwater, N. Y., 12, 66, 82, 93, 263, 

282, 352, 354, 356 
Stock, Godfrey, 244 
Stockhridge, Past and Present, 30, 

511, 513 
Stock-bridge, Mass., 8, 28, 38, 67, 

120, 126, 147, 151, 167, 186, 244, 

290, 317, 329, 365, 382, 392, 393, 

416, 435, 471, 500 
Stockbridge warriors, 29, 32, 47, 67, 

428 
Stockwell, C. E. (Onderkirk Place), 

231 
Stoddard, Col. John, 67, 80, 126, 129, 
146, 188, 208, 450; Nathan Pres- 
ton, 450 , . , 
"Stone Arabia" Patent (Diamond 

Rock), 8, 61, 65, 66, 258 
Stone Cobble (Mount Emmons), 10 
Stone Hill, 8, 171, 432 
Stone Post Road, 249, 432, 434, 435, 

448 
Stone, Silas, tavern, 177 
"Stony Ledge," 500, 501 
Stoughton, Father, 192 
Stowe, Harriet Beecher, Minister's 

Wooing, 410 
vStratton, Maj. Isaac, 171, 174, 180, 

344; Richard, 173, 176, 177; 

Mount, 163, 174 
Strong, Rev. Thomas, 412 
Stuart, Prof. (Andover Seminary), 

420 
vStuyvesant, Gov. Peter, 33, 34, 46, 

92, 115; Gerardus, 120 
Subterranean rivers, 6 
Sugar-loaf Mountain, 109 
Sumcrset, Negro, case, 414 
Sunderland, Mass., 213, 214, 215, 

216, 418; Sunderland, Vt., 327 

370, 372; Peter, 286,294 
Sunrise worshippers, 482 
Swanton Falls, Vt., 98 
Swart, Dirck, 354 
Swastika (Cross of All Nations), 15, 

18, 40, 94 
Sweet, Amos, 246; Sweets Corners, 

175 
Sword House, 353, 357 



Index 



579 



Swift, Foster E., 471: Rev. Job, 384; 

"vSwift Place,"2i7; Rev. Seth,"i«o, 

382,383,387,419 
Sylvester, Peter, 282 



Tabor, Sylvanus, 43 

Taconac Lake District, 10, no, 248, 

520 
Taconac Mountain System, iv, i, 7, 

10, II, 22, 31, 358, 454, 471, 482, 

504, 520 
Taconac Pass, 449; Taconac Tract, 

66 
Taintor, Benjamin, 131 
Talbot, Lieut. -Gov., 441 
Talcot, Maj.-John, 47 
Talmage, Joel, 267; Joseph, 264 
Taunton, Alass., 249 
Tawasentha (Vale of the Many Dead), 

27, 39, 40, 106, 483 
Taylor, Elias, 171; Sergt. John, 143, 

353» 361; Sergt. Samuel, 166, 168, 

173 

Taylor's Crotch (Kreigger Mills), 166 
Temperance societies, 225, 424 
Ten Broeck, Gen., 312, 361 
Ten Eyck, Sheriff John, 282, 284, 285 
Tenny, artist, 333; Prof. Sanborn, 

427 
Tennyson, Alfred, 115, 119, 271 
Teunis, Egbert, 67, 88 
Thames, River, Eng., 95; Thames 

River, Ct., 26 
Thanksgiving Day, first, 32 
Thatcher, historian, 345 
Thaxsted Grange (Braintree, Eng.), 

368 
Thaxter, Maj., 126, 169 
Thayer, Sarah, 397, 398 
Thermopylae Pass, viii, 127, 131 
Thomas, missionary, 412, 423 
Thompson, Hon. Amasa, 210, 279; 

Barber, 225; Charles, 276; Prof. 

D. F., 30; Frederick F., 406, 407, 

478 
Thomson-Houston motors, 470; Col. 

Thomson, 393 
[ Thoreau, Henry David, i, 62, 116, 

381, 402, 403, 483, 484, 496, 499, 

500, 510 
Thorpe & Sprague, 448 
Thurbcr, Mrs, 231 
ITibbits, John, 442; Hon. George, 



248, 442, 450, 451, 452, 454, 468, 
470, 478, 480; George Mortimer, 
233. 247, 248, 249, 270, 477, 478, 
480; Rev. John B. 478; Rev. Ed- 
ward, 478, 480; Lc Grand, 249, 

341 
libbits's Hoosac School for Boys, 

477. 480 
libbits's Lake Cascade, 491 
Tichenor, Gov. Isaac, 219, 229, 280, 

433 

Ticonderoga, iii, 88, 105, 192 

Tiffany Brothers, 464 

Timias, 127 

Tinker, Giles, 445 

" Tinnonderoga Tract" (Ticondero- 
ga), 67 

Tioshoke, cornfield, 15, 29, 90; Manor 
(Hoosac Patent), 252, 256; villages, 

115, 117, 122, 136; churches, 115, 

116, 259 

Tite, Ishmael, 416 

Todd, Alithea, 190; Charles Burr, 10, 

107; Rev. Samuel, 190, 194 
Tohkoneac (Taconac), 11, 29, 519 
Toll, Charles, 252; Simon, 250 
Tom, Mount (Moodus), 10 
Tombstones, 228 
Tomhannac Valley, N. Y., 7, 8, 11, 

29, 30, 77, 85, 87, 91, 105, 252, 259, 

268, 481, 520; churches, 259; in- 
dustries, 438 
Tories (Loyalists), 290, 323 
Torrington, Ct., 389 
Totemic cantons (Abenakis), 22, 511 
Towner, Dr. William, 387 
Townscnd, Charles, 274; Martin 

Ingram, 398, 408 
Train, Thomas, 166, 168, 182 
Treaty of Westminster, 45; treaty 

between Christians and savages, 

48; Treaty of Paris, 375 
"Tree of Peace" (Witenagemot), 53, 

98 
Trenor, Thomas W., 227, 228, 445, 

464 
Tripp, Dr. Job, 246 
Trophies of war, 347 
Trout hatchery, 475 
Troy, N. Y., 7, 4i5» 438, 454, 468; 

Gentlemen, 268; turnpikes and 

railroads, 444, 451, 452, 458; 

reservoir, 481 
Trumbull, Gov. Jonathan, 310; 

Joseph, 294 



sSo 



v-^ 



Index 



Tryon, Gov. William, 286, 287, 2S8, 

291 
Tunisson, Garret (Van Vechten), 11 1 
"Tunnel City" (No. Adams), Mass., 

456, 459,47i>472. 
Tunnel, Mount Cenis, 456, 457 
Turner, Caleb B., 458; Isaac, 237 
Turnpikes (stone post roads), 434 
Turtle warriors (Unami), 20 
Twenty-Mile Line, vi, 62, 118, 120, 

205, 220, 241, 262, 271, 272, 278, 

281 
"Twigs of the Wilderness" (Beech 

Seal Court), 221, 244, 288 
Twining, Sheriff, 404 
Tyler, Duty S., 460 
Tyler's History of Amherst Coll., 393 



U 



Ukhkopeck, 483, 512 

Ukhooh (Owl), 15, 515 

Unalachti (Turkeys), 24 

Unami (Turtles), 22, 39, 107, 108, 483, 

484,511,512 
"Uncle Abe-the-Bunter " (Abraham 

Parsons), 415 
"Uncle Tom" (Tom Mandolin), 254, 

255. 415, 488 
Uncus, Sachem, 16, 23, 24, 25, 26, 49, 

53, 106, 134 
United Brethren (Unitas Fratrum), 

420, 423; United Missions, 422 
United States, Vnrthplace of, 352 
Union College, 420 
Union Village (Clarksburgh), Mass., 

460 
Unitarianism, 418 
University of Xo. Carolina, 401; 

University of Vt., 422 
Unnuhkankun (Runner), 52, 53, 515 
Unuwat Castle (Soquons), iv, 25, 27, 

28, 31, 43, 61, 65 
"Up-River" Methodist Church, 245 
"Upper Union," Clarksburgh, Mass., 

199, 200 
Utica, N. Y., 474 



V 



Vail, Aaron, 437; D. T., 454; Thomas, 

468 
"Vale of Peace,' viii, 12, 16, 51, 

55, 96, 106, 254, 270, 458, 481 



Valley Falls (Pittstown), N. Y., 117, 

426, 464 
Valley of Mingling Waters, 458, 506, 

509, 510, 518, 520 
Van Antwerp, Lewis, 263 
Van Arnam, John, 118, 210, 231 
Van Broock, Henry, 244 
Van Bunschooten, Rev. Elias, 254 
Van Buren, Hendrick, 1 1 1 ; John, 242 

Martin, no 
Van Buskirk, Johannes, 117, 259 
Van Corlaer, Capt. Arendt, ist, 46, 

61, no. III, 112; Arendt, 2d, in 

112; Arendt 3d, 112, 115, 116 

Capt. Jacobus, in 
Van Cortlandt, Jacobus, 84, 112, 118 

237; Augustus, 117, 237, 238, 25; 
Van Curler, Arendt, see Van Corlaei 
Van Cuyler Patent, 261 
Van De Bogert, Dr. Myndert Her- 

mance, 92, 93 
Van Deel (Diel), Bastian, 118, 231 

241 
Van Denburgh, Cornelius, 91, 93 

353, 365; Johannes, 115; Leven 

nus, 264 
Van Dercook, Michael, 255, 256, 259 

Simeon, 259 
Van Der Heyden, 146, 147 
Van Derrick mansion (Van Verick) 

119, 121, 141, 233 
Van Der Speigal, John, 229, 464 
Van Derwerker, Garretse, 65 ; Teunis 

255 
Van Dyck, Cornelius, 66; Peter D. 

480 

Van Eps, John Baptist, 74 

Van Hogleboom (Hogle), Bartholo^ 
mew, 66; Pitt, 115, 117, 118, 121,. 
231 

Van Hoosen, Israel, 255 

Van Home, Augustus, 117, 237, 23? 

Van Krieckebeek, Capt. Daniel, 31 
60 

Van Laer, Arnold J. F., 353 

Van Loon, John, 66 

Van Lyberg, Arnoudt, 58 

Van Ness, Capt. Cornelius, in; Hea 
drick, 84, in, 112, 118; Garrel 
Cornelius, St. Croix Manor, 114 
115, 121, 130, 141, 238; Cornelius 
V, 117, 121, 122, 239, 240, 241, 375 
Jan, 84, in; Philip, 117, 238, 251 
252,256,257,259 

Van Norman, Mr., 118 



Index 



581 



Van Noorstrand, Jan Jacobse, 65 
Van Olinde, Pieter Danielse, 65 
Van Pfister, Col. Francis J., 233, 241, 
243, 248, 261, 330, 336, 337, 341, 

342. 343, 345, 346 
Van Rensselaer, Kiliaen, 60,92, no, 

III, 119, 235,241,252; Henrv^ 84; 

Jeremiah, 62; John B., 252; Maria, 

84, 112, 118; Stephen, 115, 120, 124, 

238, 248, 384, 388;Danier, 244, 332; 

David, 115; Rev. Nicholas, 54 
Van Schaick, Capt. Goosen Garretse, 

64, 65, 355; Henry, 384 
Van Schaick Island (Adams Is.), 65, 

355; Van Schaick's Mills (St. 

Croix Mills), 441 
Van Schelluyne, Dirck, 62 
Van Schoonhoven, Guert Hendrickse, 

Van Slyck, Cornelius Antonissen, 65 

Van Tronip, Gen., 92 

Van Valkenburgh, Jacob, 240, 244; 
Sarah, 112, 240 

Van Vechten, Catherine, 118; Col. 
Cornelius, 244, 353; Maj. Derrick, 
91, 99, 100, 258, 259; Garret 
Tunisson, 84, 105, in, 112, 118; 
Jacob, 100, loi; Wouter, 117 

Van Winkle, Rip, 115 

Van Woerdt, Alida, 122; John, 259; 
Capt, Lewis, 117, 122 

Varsch River (Fresh), Ct., 26 

Vergennes, Vt., 288 

"Veritas," see Israel Harris, 303 304 

Vermont, name of, 321, 322; Councils 
of Safety of, 321, 322; Declaration 
of Independence, 309, 371; Con- 
stitution, 322, 413; State Line, 177, 
452, 554; admittance to the Federal 
Union, 376, 377, 432 

Vermont Gazette, 226, 309, 476 

Vermont Hist. Mag. (Gazetteer), see 
Abby Hemingway, 125, 287, 373, 

548 

Vermont Ilist. Sac. Proc, 309, 310 

Vermont JNIill-power Compan}^ 466 

Vermont University, 378 

Verrazano, Giovanni da, 15 

Victory Village, N. Y., Saratoga 
battlefield, 353 

Viele, Arnout Cornelisen, 74; Abra- 
ham, 91, 259; Louis, 74, 86, 91, 95; 
Ludovicus, 117, 259, 263; Petrus, 
117, 259; Sybrant, 263; Yocob, 

II7,2.S2 



Vierge-de-Grace, Ship, 142 

Vischer, Johannes Heermans, 91; 
Matthew, 312, 314 

Voeder, Curset, 91; Dominie, 246 

Volney's philosophy, 417 

Voorheres, Martinus, 232 

Voseburgh, (Vose), Petrus 118, 231, 
I 273, 274 

\ rooman, Adam, 112, 115; Bartholo- 
mew, 67, 112 



V/ 



Waddell & Shepherd, 441 

Wadham, Mrs., 370 

Wagner, Lon, 224, 229 

Waite, Rev. William, 236, 260, 261 

Wakon-bird (Spirit-dove), 8, 18, 30, 
41, 116, 507 

Walbridge, Silas, 340 

Walbridgeville (Bennington Falls), 
Vt., 224, 466 

Waldo, Dea, 236, 237, 261 

Wallace, Elijah, 231; Nathaniel, 337 

Walloomsac Gap, 7, 493 

Walloomsac Inn, 433, 448 

Walloomsac Pass of Taconacs, viii, 
109, 204, 471 

Walloomsac River and Valley, v, i, 
6, 14, 29, 112, 126, 207, 213, 214, 
228, 235, 293, 369, 433, 437, 464, 
471, 477, 493, 494; null-power, 
441; militia, 317, 318 

Walloomsac Tract and Patent, 20, 
37, 120, 126, 220, 232; origin of 
name, 20, 336, 495, 5i9 ^ 

Walloomsac Village (Hoosac), N. Y., 
2^6, 346 

Walloon Creek (Walloomsac), 20, 120, 
519 

Walloons, French, 19, 59, 61 

Walworth, Benjamin, 233, 245; Reu- 
ben, 249 

Wampanoags, Unami Race, iii, 24, 

27, 37, 46, 50, 52, 55, 59^ 
Wanalancet, Sachem, Pennacook- 
Wampanoag cantons, 24, 39, 46, 

47, 53 
Wanamaker, Jr., John, 484 
Wanepimoseck Creek (Nepmiorc), 

117, 519 
Wappanachki (Abenakis), 39, 4^, I34, 

135,484,511,512 
War of 1812, 159, 227, 231, 250, 267, 
378, 43<'>, 440 



582 



Index 



Ware's State Line Tavern, 178, 179; 
Samuel Ware, 420 

Ware, Mass., 213 

Warner, Lieut. Daniel, 278, 329; 
Capt. John, 340; Col. Seth, Cent. 
Reg., 183, 219, 278, 284, 286, 296, 
298, 306, 314, 323, 325, 332, 338, 
343, 344. 375; Susan, Qtieechy, 434 

Warren, R. L, 215, 261 

Warren (Baptist) Society, 173, 177, 
195, 214, 245, 418 

Warren, David, 132, 142; Capt. 
Gideon, 172, 286; Jabez, 168, 210; 
Dr. John, 224, 249; John Hobart, 
478; Joseph, 191, 293; Rev. Obed, 
215, 261; Otis, 224, 324; Stephen, 

452, 454 
Warwick, R. L, 235, 248, 442 
Warwickshire, Eng., 442 
Washburn, Lieut. -Col., Peter T., 427 
Washington, Gen. George, Rev. Army, 

146, 153, 325, 346, 347> 354> 355. 

371. 375, 376, 377, 387, 432, 439 
Washington Co., N. Y., 7, 262, 267 
Wash-Tub Brook, 6, 29, 118, 137 
Wassenaer, Nicholaes, 31 
Waterbury, Jr., Brig. -Gen. David, 315 
Waterford, N. Y., 65, 325, 355, 451, 

452, 481 
Waterman, Col. John, 444; Col. 

William, 173, 185, 200, 202 
Watertown, Mass., 378 
Watson, Schorel Marters, 118, 231 
Watts, Rev. Isaac, 278 
Wawbeek Falls (Greylock Range), 

503, 506 
Wayne, Gen., 307 
Weiaster, Daniel, 341, 394; Capt. 

Ebenezer, 341 
Weeme, Capt., 71 
Weeping Rocks, 6, 9, 35, 36, 69, 118, 

255, 295, 432, 433 
Wekowohum (Wigwam), 22, 513 
Welch, Marvin Gaylord, 176; Rev. 

Whitman, 176, 179, 180, 192 
. Welling, Edward, 220, 464, 466 
Wells, Austin, 261; Edmund, 256; 

Thomas, 67 
Welsh Colonies, 14 
Wendel, Johannes, 66 
Went worth, N. H., 412 
Wentworth, Gov. Benning, 205, 206, 

208, 209, 210, 220, 226, 232, 271, 

272, 281; Foster, 205, 210; John, 

210 



Wesley, John, 261, 262, 418 
West, Rev. Stephen, 384, 412, 416 
West Canada Creek, N. Y., 95 
Westenholm, John, 18 
Westerlo, Rev. Eilardus, 254 
Westfield, Mass., 47, 216, 418, 451 
West Hoosae Propriety, 67, 150, 153, 

162, 163, 167, 168, 169, 170, 171, 

187 
Wcstinghouse, George, 118, 467 
Westminster Massacre, Vt., 291, 374, 

375 

Weston Field, 40 

Weston, Mass., 188 

Wetherell's Willow Dell shop, 499 

Whale Lsland, 66 

Wheeler & Wilson sewing-machine, 
461 

Wheeler vs Wright case, 280 

"Whig Tavern, " 497, 499 

Whipping-post (pillory), 244 

Whipple, Alonzo, 121 

White Creek, N. Y., see Cambridge 
District, 7, 29, 112, 225, 234, 256, 
261, 266, 272, 340, 343, 438; town- 
meeting, 267; academy, 266 

Whitefield, Rev. George, 190, 278, 
418 

Whitehall Manor (Skenesboro), N. 

Y., 75, 98, 136, 343, 434 
White, Hawley, 466; Joseph, 300 
White House Bridge (Hoosae), N. Y., 

231, 233, 243, 341, 435 
White House Manor (Nepimore 

Vale), 233, 248, 330, 337 
White Mountains, N. H., iv, 55, 448, 

502 
White Oak Tree, 162, 163, 206 
White Oaks (Williamstown), Mass., 

171, 179, 403, 424, 427, 429, 471. 

504 
White Plains, N. Y., Battle, 183, 319 
Whiting, Vt., 296 
Whiting, Lieut. -Col., 156, 157 
Whitman, Reuben, 193 
Whitney, William Dwight, 406, 408, 

504 
Whittebeck, Thomas, 252 
Whittier, John Greenleaf, 7, 13, 77, 

410, 418 
Wigowwauw (Great Sachem), 22, 28, 

513 
Wilberforce, writings of, 413 
V/ilbur, Fones, 353; James, 201, 202, 

498, 499; Jeremiah, 187, 188, 498 



Index 



583 



Wilbur Park (Greylock Range), 163, 
503, 506 

Wilkinson, Col. Gates's Array, 364 

Wilmington, Del., 462; Wilmington, 
Vt., 226, 347, 393, 480 

Willard's Mount, 356 

Willemstadt (Albany), N. Y., 44 

William Henry, Fort, 154; Hotel, 
161 

William the Conqueror, 139, 368 

William's War, King, 67, 71 

Williams, Col. Elijah, 208, 384 ; Eliza- 
beth Jackson, 145, 146; Col. Eph- 
raim, Sr., 67, 68, 1 19, 145, 146, 151 ; 
Col. Ephraim, Jr., 80, 120, 130, 
131, 144, 145, 146, 147, 148, 150, 
151, 152, 154, 155, 156, 159, 160, 
161, 166, 168, 186, 191, 192, 
199, 203, 208, 442; Will, 153, 381, 
382, 384, 394, 396; muster rolls, 
527, 528, 530, 531, 533, 534, 
535- 537; letter, 535, 536; Mount, 
128, 161,460; 535,536; Col. Israel, 
120, 124, 125, 126, 130, 146, 147, 
151, 152, 153, 154, 166, 168, 169, 
187, 208, 210, 382; Capt. Jedediah, 
218; Josiah, 208; Capt. (Rev.) 
John, 126, 208; Rev. (Bishop) John, 
158; Col. (Dr.) John, 265, 334; 
Robert, 145; Roger, 188; Samuel, 
Hist, of Vt., 288; Dr. Thomas, 131, 
133, 137, 140, 145, 158, 159, 208; 
Dr. W. S., 159; Col. William, 
(Pittsfield, Mass.) 80, 146, 166, 188, 
205, 208, 218; Col. William, (Wil- 
mington, Vt.) 337; Deacon Will- 
iam, 382, 383; Maj. William, 360, 
362 

Williamstown, Mass., 126, 142, 150, 
153, 171, 174, 182, 183, 205, 293, 
296, 365, 366, 381, 382, 392, 393, 
409, 426, 427, 430, 432, 434, 435, 

442, 444, 449, 451, 489, 494, 502, 
506; surveys, 68, 162; plan, 163, 
164, 176; town-meeting, 162, 174; 
ist Cong. Church, 173, 176, 177, 
180, 232, 386, 413, 419; 2d. ong. 
Church, 177, 386, 387, 397; 3d. 
Cong. Church, 387, 504; Baptist 
Church, militia, 294, 319, 327; 
inns, 179 
Williamstown Free School, Jr., 158, 

174, 197, 382, 383, 385, 386, 399. 
419 
Williams College, 10, 158, 166, 226, 



381, 387, 389, 392, 399= 402, 408, 
409, 47S, 492, 493, 497, 500, 505; 
trustees and seal, 384, 387; presi- 
dents, 391; campus and buildings, 
385, 386, 389, 400, 402, 406, 407, 
419, 490; removal case, 392, 393, 
394, 396; Girls Dept., 397, 398; 
alumni, 159, 160, 384, 386, 390, 
397, 406, 408, 425, 494, 502; 
cemetery, 427, 504; centennial, 408 
Williams College Quarterly, 36 
Williamstown and Williams Coll., 
i<so, 181, 293, 304, 315, 388, 392, 
403, 406, 424, 425, 482, 492, 494, 

504, 538, 539, 540, 545, 548, 549 
Willis, Nathaniel P., 494 
Wilson, Allen B., inventor of the 

sewing-machine, 202, 261, 461 
Windsor, Ct., 216, 418; Windsor, Vt., 

279 
Wmdsor Print Works, 444, 445, 460 
Winslow, Gov. Edward, Mass., 142; 

Gen. Winslow, 126, 142, 169 
Winston, John, 287 
Winthrop, Gen. Fitz John, 75 
Wirt, WiUiam, 394 
Wister, Owen, Virginians, 435, 491 
Witchcraft, 232 
Witenagemot Oak, vii, 30, 40, 43, 50, 

51, 52, 53, 54, 56, 57, 83, 91, 96, 

106, 484, 490 
Withington, Nathan, N. 410 
Witt's Ledge, 459 
Wolcott, Oliver, 292 
Wolfe, Theodore F., Literary Shrines, 

494 
Wolfe, Gen., James 82, 126 
Wolf warriors, 15, 16, 20 
Wolves, 358 
Wood, Aaron, 467; Jethro, 437; 

Walter Abbott, 244, 437, 445, 446, 

466, 467, 468, 480 
Woodbridge, Joseph, 120, 392; Dr. 

Luther Dana, 427; Rev. Timothy, 

67, 119, 166, 170 
Woodburn, John, 235 
Woodbury, Charles, 492, 494 
Woodbury, Ct., 173, 190, 369 
Wood Creek hunting-grounds, 98, 

136 

Woodford, Vt., 220, 227, 228, 445, 464 
Woodward, Scott, 436 
Woollen industry, 436 
Wooster, Col., Ct. Reg., 307 
Worcester, Dr. Samuel, 420 



M 



Index 



Worcester River, Mass., 451 
Wordsworth's Excursion, 494 
Worthington, Col. John, 158, 382; 

Gen. Aaron, 235, 246, 250 
Wright, Charles, 177, 187, 190, 210, 

279. 295; Gen. Josiah, 199, 279; 

Capt. Samuel, 295, 304, 306; 

Solomon, 279; Noah, 140 
Wyllys, Col. Samuel, 294 
Wyman, Col. Isaac, 126, 150, 166, 

168, 169, 170, 173, 187, 318, 319, 538 



Yale College, 145, 177, 294, 383, 387, 
390, 392, 397. 420 



Yankee Doodle, 364; Yankee Pil- 
grims, 39, 61; Yankee Schoolmas- 
ter, lOI 

Yates Peter, 91, 264; Robert, 70, 
282, 285; Yocob, 259 

Yorkers' Patents, 277, 288 

Yorktown, Va., 375 

" Yonnondio, " 54, 74, 76 

Young, Brigham, 393; Dr. Thomas, 
321, 322, 370, 371, 372 

Youngstown, Ohio, 462 

Youth's Companion, 180 



Zinzendorf , Count, 29, 84, 1 16 



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